


Dex Holders' Destiny

by 1358456



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-05-08 11:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 44,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14692875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1358456/pseuds/1358456
Summary: An Ao3 re-upload of the story of the same name on FF.net, Dex Holders' Destiny (September 15, 2014 ~ December 22, 2018).A story based on Pokémon Special, the manga. It’s the destiny of the Dex Holders to fight evil and protect the world, regardless of who threatens it. But sometimes, fighting evil isn’t as clear and straight forward as it should be.As the Dex Holders are forced to fight one another, they must try to reconcile as fast as possible so they are not overrun by an enemy with overwhelming force...





	1. Whispers of Doom

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Dex Holders’ Destiny, or Destiny for short. Not to be confused with Bungie’s Destiny.
> 
> Pairings: Red & Yellow, Green & Blue, Gold & Crystal, Ruby & Sapphire, Diamond & Platinum, Black & White, and X & Y. The pairing shift will occur later on.
> 
> Warning: Destiny will contain scenes of blood, not entirely gruesome content, and will most likely have some bad f*cking language.

Chapter 1: Whispers of Doom

Terminus Cave, Kalos…

It was dark. And quiet. No wild Pokémon dared to live in this section of the cave. Workers were advised to stay far away from the part of the cave and set up barricades to prevent random people and trainers from going there.

Even then, some fearless trainers would try their luck. They never returned the same.

From the deepest crevice of the cave, a single Pokémon stood in front of a shadow. All the emptiness around them and the total lack of sound being its home. But it was channeling its energy. Somewhere… to someone…

The Pokémon silently vibrated. And a deep voice reverberated from the shadow in an oddly vibrating monotone.

“Assimilation… successful…”

…

Several days later, Shalour City…

…

Korrina slowly came to a stop after another lap. Whenever there weren’t any challengers, she spent time either training, or taking on the roller skating rink that was her Gym gimmick. And today, she was skating lap after lap, trying to beat her record. So far so good. She was consistently getting a decent record.

Time for another lap. Just as she was about to start timing, the main entrance to the Gym opened. She looked over and spotted a trainer standing there with his hands in his pockets. The trainer had a cap and sunglasses, so his distinct features weren’t exactly noticeable.

“Are you a challenger?” Korrina asked as she skated towards him.

“No,” the trainer answered calmly. “I’m here because I have an inquiry about Mega Evolution.”

“Oh. My grandpa would know best, but he’s in another region… You should try the Tower of Mastery,” Korrina suggested. “There are still lots of researchers there who can tell you about it.”

“Actually,” the trainer started as he descended the stairs to get to her level. “I would prefer seeing your Mega Lucario.”

“So you are here to challenge me.”

“I said this wasn’t a challenge,” the trainer said rather menacingly. Without warning, he shoved the Gym Leader backwards, causing her to slip and fall.

“Ow! Hey! What’s your problem?!” she yelled angrily as she got back up.

The trainer had a Pokéball in his hand. “Mega Lucario. Now.”

Korrina glared at the trainer before she complied. “So be it!” She sent out her Lucario and waited for the trainer to send out his Pokémon. He didn’t. “Mega Evolve!” she ordered as she pressed the Key Stone on her glove. The Lucarionite reacted with the stone and the Lucario soon became Mega Lucario.

The trainer sent out his Pokémon. It was some kind of small blob, but it changed too quickly to be recognizable. In an instant, the blob had changed into… Mega Lucario. But unlike Korrina’s, this one had some sort of a scarf around his neck.

Korrina gasped in shock. This trainer wasn’t using a Mega Lucario. He was using a Ditto. That copied her Mega Lucario way too quickly compared to a normal Ditto. And that scarf…

Korrina clenched her teeth. “Bone Rush!” she yelled, determined to fight.

“Power-Up Punch,” the trainer ordered.

The Mega Lucario created a large bone-staff using its aura and charged forward. The Ditto focused energy into its fist and charged as well. But it was much faster than the Mega Lucario. Before the real Pokémon could prepare to strike, the copy had connected with its attack. The Mega Lucario staggered backwards, surprised from the sudden strike. The Ditto’s power matched its own, obviously, but it was much faster. The Ditto charged forward again with Power-Up Punch, as it could only use that attack now. Before the Mega Lucario could react, it got hit with the attack once more, sending it flying into its trainer, knocking her over in the process.

Korrina grunted as she sat up. Her Lucario had reverted to its normal state, as it was no longer capable of maintaining the Mega Evolution. She looked up and saw the enemy trainer approaching with his Ditto-Mega Lucario. She quickly tried to think of a strategy, but there wasn’t enough time.

The Ditto kicked the Lucario away, leaving Korrina defenseless. She had other Pokémon with her, but right now, they would not be able to do anything. The Ditto had powered itself up with the repeated usage of Power-Up Punch, and was much faster than the other Pokémon.

The trainer reached down and grabbed her wrist. He yanked it upwards so that he could see the Key Stone. He roughly twisted her arm, preventing her from fighting back or risk dislocating her shoulder.

“I’ll be taking this now,” the trainer said as he proceeded to remove the girl’s Key Stone.

“No, no, no! You can’t!”

The trainer didn’t respond and instead, twisted her arm more, earning a pained cry from her.

The Lucario heard its trainer’s cry and forced itself up to its feet. It had to protect her… The Ditto-Mega Lucario saw it move and delivered another Power-Up Punch, ending its fight. The Ditto then proceeded to remove the Lucario’s Lucarionite.

The trainer finished removing the girl’s Key Stone and finished her fight by delivering a swift kick to the back of the head. Even though Korrina was wearing her helmet, the kick was enough to knock her unconscious. The trainer then took the Lucarionite from the Ditto and returned it to its Pokéball.

Now for the next phase. He grabbed Korrina by her hands and proceeded to drag her somewhere. She still had a purpose. And she must not be seen by anyone.

…

A month later, August 15, One Island…

…

Blue stared blankly at the small berry plant in front of her. A nice Pecha plant was growing, though it was still days away from producing anything. But still, it was nice to direct her attention to something. She had absolutely nothing to do nowadays, so she had planted several berries in her backyard. Most had given their fruits and died, leaving just this one Pecha plant. Once she harvested from this plant, she’d plant some more berries and the process would repeat endlessly.

She mentally recalled the current date, and counted. … 459 days and 213 berry-cycles. It’s been 459 days since she saw any of the other Dex Holders, minus Silver. Also 459 days since she was contacted by any Dex Holder apart from Silver. Ever since _that_ incident. But was that really her fault?

… There was a fight. With Green. A short one, but many things were said. She remembered everything with perfect clarity.

_“Blue, can’t you just leave me alone for a little bit? Why are you constantly pestering me like this?!”_

_“An odd thing for you to say, considering how the last time I saw you was 4 months ago. But be careful about what you say, Green. I might just leave you alone permanently. Is that what you want?”_

_“If it means you’ll leave me alone and I’ll be able to get some work done, maybe.”_

_“… Fine. I’ll go. And I’ll never **bother** you ever again, as you wish.”_

It all started when Blue jokingly commented about Green spending pretty much all day everyday with Crystal. Apparently she touched a sensitive issue by bringing her up. She knew that the Johto Dex Holder wasn’t in any relationship, and definitely not with Green, whom she looked up to as a mentor and senior. But apparently, Green was sick and tired of those implications. She wasn’t being serious about it, but he was really angry that day. But how was it her fault, when he never talked to her? She never stayed long around him because he didn’t want her to, so there was no reason for her to know what was going on in his life, and while she was trying to fix that, he was trying to keep her away. And in his surprising anger, he touched her sensitive nerves as well.

He didn’t want her around. So be it. She’d stop visiting him entirely and pretend that she didn’t know him. Maybe one day, she’d see him again and work things out.

… 459 days. It was as if Green completely forgot about her existence. And everyone else was probably avoiding her because of him.

Blue let out a long sigh. She meant that little to him and everyone else… She made a decision. The next time she went to Pallet Town or saw any of the other Dex Holders, she was going to relinquish her Pokédex. She found no reason to hold onto it, at all. The Pokédex was a symbol, for sure. But of what?

Guardians against evil? Sure, but what has that gotten her? Her experiences in this very island taught her that reputations mean nothing. People would turn their backs against her in an instant.

Friendship with fellow Pokédex Holders? Certainly. But of course, when all the other Dex Holders forgot about her existence, “friendship” is meaningless.

Blue sighed again as she sat down on the grass under a tree’s shadow. This was just her darker thoughts. Perhaps the bad dream she had today was affecting her mood. Quite often, she held onto hope that her relationships with the other Dex Holders would vastly improve as time passes. Other times, she forced herself to avoid thinking about it to keep her own spirits high.

Today, she would need to lift her spirits. Maybe a trip to Mt. Ember’s spa would fix things. She had originally wanted to go there with her friends, but that wasn’t going to happen, ever, so she might as well enjoy it by herself. After packing all the necessary stuff, she slowly headed towards Mt. Ember on her Wigglytuff. She landed halfway up Kindle Road so that she could walk the rest of the way. It was a nice day today. And she would enjoy it to the most. A nice leisurely stroll… all by herself.

She could see Mt. Ember in the distance. It was pretty big, almost the size of Mt. Silver. But it was a volcano. A not-so-inactive one too. So who had the genius plan of building a spa inside it? But apparently people trusted the designers and were visiting frequently. Perhaps the occasional presence of Moltres convinced them that it was safe, as the Legendary Pokémon would not roost somewhere that might explode. But… it heals itself by dipping in lava. So if the volcano did erupt, it was like showering someone in antiseptic. Unpleasant, but healing. So perhaps Moltres was just waiting for the mountain to explode. But it gets damaged by Fire type moves, such as Lava Plume. … What?

Blue shook her head. Those thoughts weren’t getting anywhere. Though it did distract her from her darker thoughts. So it wasn’t too bad. … Then again, thanks to being distracted, she accidentally took the wrong road and was now surrounded by unfamiliar mountainsides. Hmm…

She could just get onto her Wigglytuff again and see where she was. But then again, screw it. All she had to do was hug the mountainside and she’d get to Mt. Ember spa.

As she walked, Blue could hear some commotion far ahead. Sounded like a trainer battle. Kindle Road did have a lot of wild Pokémon, so it was possible that trainers were using this place as a training ground.

Blue continued walking. If she got close to the battle, she could see what was happening. There was no way Red or Green would be here, as this place was _far_ too weak for them to be training. But it seemed that this battle was disturbing the locals. The ground started to shake and a giant dust cloud was coming closer from ahead. Blue squinted and spotted a large pack of wild Ponyta and Rapidash, being led by a single leader.

The pack suddenly surrounded her. Blue simply observed the leading Rapidash. Huh. It was gray, instead of orange in color. Ooh, a shiny! Crystal had once talked about such Pokémon. Silver has one as well. They were apparently very rare.

The leader approached her angrily. It appeared to be battered and weakened. So it must’ve recently lost a battle. Probably against the trainers who were training here. And it appeared that it had chosen her to be its redemption battle. It would clobber her and prove its worth to the pack.

Blue let out an amused laugh. Oh, this was… interesting. This wasn’t exactly bad luck, or good luck either. Being randomly bullied by wild Pokémon is bad, but if one of them is shiny… and is a pony too! … That’s what _normal_ girls wanted, right? Ponies? … Well, this one was a horse so a little past the “pony” phase, but… close enough!

Blue was about to send out her Blastoise when a different Pokéball hit the ground in front of her. In an instant, a Starmie popped out of the ball, facing the shiny Rapidash. Blue frowned as she noticed a distinct sparkle when the Starmie appeared. Huh. Were Starmies always so… blue? She thought they were usually light purple. Huh. A shiny Starmie!

The shiny Rapidash charged towards the Starmie, but the Mysterious Pokémon easily dodged. It was way too fast for the wild Rapidash. The Starmie suddenly shot a huge stream of water from one of its tips. Hydro Pump. And it was enough to instantly defeat the shiny Rapidash.

The surrounding pack of Ponyta and Rapidash still kept the surround, and was now preparing to attack as well. Blue decided to sit back and watch what the Starmie would do. Or what the Starmie’s trainer would do. It would be more entertaining than fighting these things by herself.

Another Pokéball opened next to the Starmie, and with another distinct sparkle, a light brown Tyranitar appeared. The shiny Tyranitar roared, and that was enough to get the pack of Ponyta and Rapidash scurrying.

Once the pack fled, the two shiny Pokémon were returned to their Pokéballs.

“Are you okay?” came a male voice from behind.

Blue turned around and saw a trainer running over. He had a cap on over his head, like Gold always does, but with the cap facing forward. Like Red (who had his cap _resting_ on his hair facing forward). His hair was black, based on what Blue could see on the side, but she couldn’t see his eyes because of his sunglasses. The trainer had a white shirt and black pants, and a dark blue coat on his shoulder. A traveler, then, as locals would leave their coats at home for days like this. This trainer’s body figure was similar to Green. Not exactly big or muscular (average build), but still possessing significant strength and agility.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Blue replied as she waited for him to get closer. “Thanks, I guess? I wasn’t in any danger, but I appreciate the thought.”

The trainer soon stopped in front of her and took a second to look at the shiny Rapidash still on the ground.

“I saw the pack surround you and I thought they were going to attack,” he said. “It’s good to know that you’re safe.” He took a quick glance around the area. “I think we should get moving now,” he said as he pointed south. “We might as well get away from here before the pack returns with their buddies. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do today than beat waves after waves of local wildlife.”

Blue hesitated, as the trainer was pointing the opposite direction of where she wanted to go, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted this guy to come with her to the spa.

“Come on, friend,” said the trainer with a warm smile.

Blue raised an eyebrow. “Friend? We just met and while you technically saved me from a threat that wasn’t a threat to me in any way, I don’t think we know each other well enough to be friends.”

“Hey, come now. If even people who simply pass by each other develop a connection, a case like us is quite significant. Even though we don’t know each other quite well, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, yes?”

Blue thought about it and soon smiled. “I guess you’re right. Sorry if I sounded cold.” She cleared her throat and offered her hand. “I’m Blue from One Island. What’s your name?” She suppressed a bitter smile and maintained her happy and cheerful expression. That bitter smile was the result of realizing that her introduction method has changed. She no longer referred to herself as “Kanto Dex Holder” and instead pretended to be some random girl from One Island.

The trainer shook her hand, still keeping his warm smile. “I’m Peter from Kalos. Nice to meet you.”

Blue smiled back and walked with him as he led her away from the battlefield. She occasionally glanced at him as she walked, trying to understand his intentions. … Did he like her or something? Blue smiled at the thought.

‘ _At least he’s nice and friendly. More than what I can ask for…_ ’


	2. Domination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that "Peter" in this story is based on a real-life friend, thus has tons of RNGed Pokemon like the real one.
> 
> Also note that when Destiny's plans were created, XY arc had JUST begun. So everything that happened in XY and onward were not known at this point in time.

Chapter 2: Domination

August 15, Kindle Road, One Island…

Blue walked in silence. She didn’t know what to say to this Peter. She didn’t want to call herself a Dex Holder anymore, so talking about that was out of the question. Which also meant that talking about everything she had done in the past was out of the question as well. Hmm… She _could_ ask if this guy had a girlfriend or something. But that was weird. And it’d sound as if she liked him. Which she did not. Hmm…

“So… Kalos, huh?” Blue said eventually, having found no other interesting topics to talk about. “How is that region? Cold? Warm?”

“It has some cold areas,” Peter answered. “Overall, it’s similar to Kanto or Johto. It’s a big region with a large variety of towns and cities. There old fashioned cities, quiet towns, historic locations, and a giant tech city. Maybe you should visit one day.”

Blue thought about it. Truthfully, there was no reason for her to stay in Kanto/Sevii Islands. And if just staying around her home was wasting time, then she might as well start traveling around. Do some sightseeing and other activities that she had once wanted to do with her friends.

“Maybe I will,” she said. “I always wanted to start traveling around.”

“Great. Maybe I can give you a tour of the region,” Peter said with a smile. “I’ll be heading back there later today. So if you want, when you get to Kalos, I can give you my Pokégear number so you can give me a call.”

Blue shrugged. “Sure, why not.” A risk, perhaps. But damn it, she didn’t care. She took out her modified Pokégear and the two exchanged their numbers.

And now, the conversation topic had run dry. Again. Rats.

But this time, Peter spoke up first. “Hey, would you happen to know anything about Mega Evolution?”

Blue blinked. “Mega what now?”

“Mega Evolution. Quite a lot of Pokémon are capable of doing it.”

“This is the first time I ever heard about it.” ‘ _Another reason to ditch my Pokédex. I’m this so-called Evolver and I have no idea what this Mega Evolution is._ ’

“Some Pokémon, like Tyranitar, can undergo a temporary evolution,” Peter started. “It reverts back after a battle or an extended period of time. A Pokémon that went Mega gains a huge power boost. But each Pokémon requires their own Mega Stone and the trainer needs a Key Stone to utilize the Mega Evolution.”

“That’s… interesting. I’ve never seen one before,” Blue said. “Can you use it?”

“Sadly, no. Not yet, at least,” Peter answered. “I do have a ton of Pokémon that can go Mega, but I don’t have the Key Stone yet. I’ve been looking for the Mega Evolution Guru from Kalos, but he went to another region, so I’ve been looking for him. Word is, he returned to Kalos, which is why I’m returning later today.”

“Speaking of your Pokémon,” Blue said, suddenly remembering something. “Can I see your team? You have _two_ shiny Pokémon. That’s so cool.”

Peter rubbed the back of his neck. “Seeing my entire team may take a long while. I do have a ton of Pokémon with me here.”

He then took off his bag and opened it. Blue looked inside and saw seemingly hundreds of Pokéballs, each containing a Pokémon in it. Well, no trainers were strictly limited to 6 Pokémon. They could always carry more. Though obviously the trainer wouldn’t be able to give equal attention to them all, and only 6 of them would be used in any official battles. Plus, feeding them might be… problematic if there were 200 Pokémon in the team.

“Wow, you have a lot of Pokémon,” Blue said as she examined the various Pokémon in the bag. She couldn’t see most as they were buried deep in the bag, but she was still amazed by the ones she could see. “Charizard, Typhlosion, Dragonite, Tyranitar, Starmie, Scizor, Weavile, Espeon, Garchomp, Salamence, Politoed, Ninetales, Alakazam, Hydreigon, Volcarona, Chandelure… And they’re all shiny! … Or I assume Garchomp is shiny, considering how everyone else is. Is every Pokémon shiny?”

“Yeah. Well, except Ditto.”

“Wow. You must be like the luckiest person in the world,” Blue said in surprise. “Most people see one or two, but you… wow.”

Peter coughed. “Yeah. Luck. That’s what it was.” He glanced at his watch and jumped in surprise. “Whoa. I’m going to be late! Sorry, but I guess I have to get going now.”

Blue nodded. “Okay, that’s fine.” She extended a hand, and Peter shook it. “It was nice to meet you. Maybe we’ll meet again in Kalos.”

“Be sure to visit, and be sure to call when you do.” Peter waved at her and then sent out his aerial transport Pokémon (a light green Salamence), and flew off into the distance.

Blue watched him leave and then headed back towards Mt. Ember Spa. ‘ _Peter, huh? Interesting… Kalos, Mega Evolution… Hmm… I should get to Kalos… Maybe soon?_ ’

…

Few days later, August 18, Pallet Town, 10 am…

…

Blue got off of her Wigglytuff as she finished eating the last Pecha Berry. She had harvested from the Pecha Berry plant earlier that day. She had decided to go to Kalos two days ago, but had waited so that the berry plant would give off its harvest before she left. That way, she could store a couple of berries in the refrigerator and eat the rest so that she could go on a journey without having to worry about tending the berry plant.

Even though Blue was fully prepared to go to Kalos, she visited Pallet Town first. Why? She didn’t know either. Maybe she wanted to see Green one more time before she left. Maybe, just maybe, she could see that he missed her too. … Yeah, right.

Blue approached Prof. Oak’s lab, but didn’t knock on the door. No way. She didn’t come all this way just to hear Green tell her to go away. Not again. Instead, she walked around the lab until she found the windows to the secondary research room. She pressed herself against the wall and took out a small flexible camera. It had a small round lens that was attached to a flexible steel rod. It was like a snake, basically, so it was sometimes called a snake cam. Blue plugged in the snake cam to her modified Pokégear and bent the steel rod so that she could see into the research room without being spotted.

Inside the room, she spotted Green sitting at his desk, typing away at his computer. Again. As always. Blue smirked. If she had knocked on the door, Green’s response would’ve been exactly the same as all of the other times. Interestingly, Blue couldn’t find Crystal. Usually, the Johto Dex Holder was in the same room as her senior, working on research together. Which was why Blue had jokingly commented about Green’s relationship with Crystal a long time ago. Strange…

Suddenly, Blue’s Pokédex started to beep loudly. It was resonating, which meant Red was nearby as well. But more importantly, this meant that both Red and Green knew that she was nearby. This was not what she wanted. She didn’t want to make herself seen by Green. She did not want to hear him talk about how she had just distracted him from his _precious_ work.

Blue quickly set her Pokédex on the ground just below the window and attached the note she had written earlier that day. It was basically her declaration that she was no longer a Dex Holder. She had intended to shove the Pokédex and the letter in the mail box, but that plan had to be changed.

The moment she set her Pokédex down, she began to climb up the building via the drainage pipe. She climbed up quickly and quietly, as she was, sadly, trained for this kind of thing. By the time an investigator found the Pokédex, Blue would be on top of the building’s roof.

Blue reached the roof and quickly rolled onto it. She then bent the snake cam at a different angle, so that she could see the ground without exposing herself. She spotted her Pokédex and waited. Before long, Red came into the snake cam’s vision… but not Green.

Red glanced around the area for a few seconds before he picked up the Pokédex. He spotted the letter, but didn’t read it, as Blue had signed it “to Green”. She didn’t bother to write her name on the letter, since it was pretty obvious who wrote the letter if it was attached to her Pokédex. Red glanced around some more before heading back inside the lab.

Blue withdrew her snake cam and sighed. As expected, Green… really didn’t care about her. Hmph. Go figure. Then there was really no way that Green would care enough to spot her personal letter… that was concealed within the “formal” letter.

As Blue put away her snake cam, she spotted something from Viridian City. She squinted, but it was too far away, so she put on her modified Silph Scope. She zoomed in and spotted Crystal being carried by her Xatu, while the girl herself was carrying what appeared to be a shopping bag.

That wasn’t good. If Crystal came any closer, she’d see Blue sitting on the roof. Blue decided to act first. She got her Ditto to attach itself onto the roof and then rolled off the roof. The Ditto caught her and gently pushed her against the wall, making herself invisible from Crystal. The Ditto began to camouflage itself so that it matched the color of the wall. Blue sighed in relief and then took out her snake cam once more so that she could see when the coast would be clear.

Inside the lab, Red began to search around, looking for Blue. He found the girl’s Pokédex, but the girl herself was missing. And that was weird. The Pokédex only resonated if the owner of that Pokédex was in the vicinity as well. But no Blue? Hmm… could the girl have modified it somehow to resonate even if she wasn’t nearby? Certainly a possibility…

“Hey Green,” he called as he entered the secondary research room. The main one was off limits to him, as it contained all of Prof. Oak’s research material. And the last time he was there… he ended up freeing all the Pokémon that the professor was researching on. Even though that incident was over 10 years ago, he was still banned from going there. Eh, whatever.

“Did you find Blue?” Green asked, still typing away at his computer.

“No. I think you should see this,” Red said.

Green saved his work and swiveled in his chair to face his friend. For a second, he looked quite surprised to see him holding Blue’s Pokédex. He knew it was Blue’s, since Red had placed his own Pokédex on the desk when he ran outside to find the girl.

“What’s that on top?” Green asked.

“It’s a letter. For you.”

Green took the Pokédex and read the letter out loud.

_To Green_

_I’m giving up my Pokédex. Give this to Yellow after you remove the inscribed name. It’s about time she gets a new Pokédex model._

“What the…” Green muttered in surprise.

“I haven’t seen her in a long time, and suddenly this happens? Huh… I wonder if something’s wrong,” Red muttered as well. “Did something happen between you two?”

Green frowned. “I don’t remember. I haven’t seen her in years. She never called either. Hmm… How strange.”

There was a sudden sound of the main entrance to the lab opening. Both Red and Green quickly went to investigate, hoping that it was Blue. Unfortunately, it was just Crystal returning from Viridian City.

The girl was in the process of shutting and locking the door, so she didn’t see her two seniors’ disappointed looks. By the time she faced them, they’d have reverted their expressions to default.

“Oh!” Crystal said in surprise the moment she turned around. “Hi, Red,” she said with a short bow and a wave once she calmed down. “Green, I didn’t think you’d be waiting for me.”

“We weren’t,” Green answered.

“Hey Crys,” Red said with a wave. “Did you happen to see Blue anywhere around here?”

Crystal frowned. “Blue? … No, I haven’t seen her in years. Why?”

Red showed her Blue’s Pokédex and her letter. “Because she gave up her Pokédex and wrote this letter.”

“What?”

Crystal quickly received the Pokédex and the letter and read it. She frowned even more, surprised by the sudden event. She suddenly stopped and felt around the letter with her fingers.

“What is it?” Green asked.

“There’s something else written here,” Crystal said as she focused on her fingertips. She quickly ran towards a desk and took out a pencil. She put Blue’s letter face down on the desk and began to color the back with the pencil. As expected, Blue’s hidden message began to appear.

“Good job, Crys,” Red said. “I can’t believe you noticed something like that.”

Crystal couldn’t answer him, as she was surprised by the content of the hidden message. She finished reading and shading it in and showed it to Green.

“Green… I think you have to go find Blue _right now_. If you value her as a friend, you have to talk to her.”

Green took the letter and began to read it out loud. Red and Crystal listened with worried expressions, both wondering how this had happened. However, completely unbeknownst to them, Blue had been directly above them on the roof a short while ago, and she was now heading towards Vermilion City so that she could visit Kalos…

…

Meanwhile, Sandgem Town, Sinnoh…

…

Platinum slowly closed the thick book she was reading and looked up. Her reading buddy/maid was waiting for her patiently so that this lecture session could go on. Normally, the heiress attended three lecture sessions per day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night. These lecture sessions were usually held by various professors in Sinnoh, so that Platinum could further increase her knowledge and keep her mind sharp. But every now and then, she got her favorite maid to read research books with her so that they may discuss their findings and understand more from the books.

Diamond and Pearl had once visited Platinum during one of the lecture sessions. It was not something they understood, as they felt that the heiress knew way too much as is, and as such did not need to learn _more_. But Platinum enjoyed the lecture sessions.

“It is time we summarize what we learned today, Julie,” Platinum said as she looked over at the maid.

“Yes, my lady.” The servant began to write notes on the chalkboard. “Today, we read much about physics of circular motion, and-”

“Could you write a little bigger, please?” Platinum said as she squinted to see better.

“Oh? Certainly.” The maid erased what she wrote and wrote larger letters. “Is this better?”

“Larger, please. I still cannot see clearly.”

The maid tilted her head. “My lady, I think you should visit an optometrist. You may need to wear glasses.”

“Glasses?” Platinum asked. “Why?”

“I think your daily reading activities have put significant strain on your eyes. You might be near sighted.”

“But will I not look weird?” the heiress asked with a slight frown.

The maid took off her glasses and approached her. “Of course not, my lady! You would look much smarter! And you will be able to see better, so you would be able to read more books. Here, try my glasses.”

Platinum put on the glasses but had to close her eyes as things were way too blurry. “It is difficult to see anything.”

“Of course my eyes are worse than yours, so you’ll need different lenses,” the maid said. “But once you start wearing your very own glasses, you’ll get used to them.”

Platinum took off the glasses and returned them to the maid. “Very well then, I will head over to the optometrist immediately. Julie, where is the nearest one?”

“It’s in northern Jubilife City. Perhaps you should take Dia and Pearl with you? They can help you pick the best frame for your glasses.”

“Yes, of course. I prefer their company.” Platinum sent her two friends a message, telling them to meet her in front of her mansion. “Julie, I want you to prepare the books that I will be reading upon my return.”

The maid tilted her head slightly. “My lady, when you first get glasses, you shouldn’t do anything strenuous to the eyes. You’ll feel quite dizzy for a while, and it takes time to get used to it. So I recommend that you don’t read anything or stare at a computer monitor for a couple of days.”

“Is that so? Were you dizzy when you first got glasses?” Platinum asked.

“Yes. I was sick for a couple of days and I had a severe headache. But that was because I got glasses a little later than I should have. I’m sure that won’t happen to you, my lady. But still, you should avoid doing optically strenuous tasks for at least a week.”

“What should I do then? If I should not read or do any research…”

The maid thought for a second. “Might I suggest you go on a vacation? Somewhere relaxing.”

Platinum thought for a while, as she contemplated on the available options. “Yes, perhaps I will.” She smiled and rose to her feet. “But first, I will go to the optometrist, as you suggested. Diamond and Pearl will be coming here in a few minutes.”

…

Few days later, August 22, Vaniville Town, Kalos…

…

Y leaned in _very_ close to the mirror, to the point where her eyelashes might touch the surface. She was in the process of making sure her appearance was absolutely perfect. Hair style, eyelashes, lip gloss, skin tone, everything. After all, today was a _special_ day. Very special.

For once, X had agreed to her schemes. He was willing to take the risk of going out into the world. He had accepted her lunch offer. Her plan? Take him to one of the best restaurants for lunch, and hopefully, he would have fun spending time with her. Eventually, he would agree to her schemes more and more until he stopped walling himself in his house. If he didn’t have fun… that jerk!

Y brushed her hair to make sure it was perfect and tied it into a ponytail. That way, her special earrings would be visible. No point in putting those on if her hair blocked them out of sight.

Once her hair was perfect, she got fully dressed and put her hat on. And now to casually stroll towards X’s house, hop onto the roof and knock on the windows until X appeared.

It was such a nice day today. Things were going to be _so_ great! … Huh?

Y froze in her tracks. X’s house… was on fire! Again! Y quickly ran towards the burning house. To her surprise, she spotted an unfamiliar trainer standing outside with an orange Chadelure… that was using Flamethrower against the house!

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” the girl demanded as she charged towards the trainer.

The trainer glanced at her. “Don’t interfere.”

Y sent out her Froakie and had it use Bubblebeam against the Chandelure. The shiny Chandelure ignored her and continued to burn down the house, however.

The trainer sent out another Pokémon. With a distinct sparkle, a slightly different colored Garchomp popped out and roared. The Mach Pokémon towered over the Froakie and swung its claw at it, forcing the small Pokémon to get out of the way. The Garchomp then directed its attention at Y. It roared again and swung its razor sharp claws horizontally.

Y quickly ducked and rolled to avoid being sliced in half by the Garchomp. The Mach Pokémon’s claw had narrowly missed her and ended up grazing her shoulder a little. And cutting a few strands of hair. The girl took a very brief moment to ensure that her body was intact before she sent out her Sylveon.

“Veevee! Draining Kiss!” she ordered, hoping that the results would be similar to the battle against Team Flare’s Sliggoo. She had almost died then, and almost died now. And at that time, her Eevee had evolved and counterattacked. Now, she’s giving the order to counterattack, with her Sylveon that had grown a lot stronger since then. Theoretically, this should be easy.

But before the Sylveon even moved, the Garchomp struck first, ramming its head into the Fairy type. The Sylveon winced and staggered backwards, losing its concentration. It flinched…

Y realized what happened. “Iron Head…” ‘ _I guess I shouldn’t compare a Garchomp to a Sliggoo…_ ’

The shiny Garchomp roared before slamming its head into the Sylveon again. Y watched in horror as her Pokémon collapsed on its side without even making a scratch on the Mach Pokémon. The Garchomp raised its foot above the Sylveon, aiming to deliver the fatal blow.

“N – No!” Y screamed. Her Froakie quickly created a thick layer of mousse between the Sylveon and the Garchomp, thus disabling the fatal attack. The Froakie hit the Garchomp with Water Pulse afterwards, forcing it to back away slightly. Y took the opportunity to charge forward and drag her Sylveon to safety. The Froakie resumed shooting thick layers of mousse at the Garchomp to block its line of sight.

Y returned the Sylveon and the Froakie and resumed charging towards X’s burning house, as she couldn’t be bogged down for too long. And since the Garchomp was _way_ more than what she could handle, at this rate, she’d be stuck like this forever. So she had to escape the battle and rescue X.

She tackled through the door and was immediately surrounded by smoke. She held her breath and kept her head below the smoke so that she could see. The entire house was on fire, but things were stable enough for her to make her way towards X’s room.

“X!” she cried out as she frantically dashed. “Where are you?!”

She heard a cough from above and quickened her pace. She ran upstairs into the thick smoke and charged through the door to X’s room within seconds. Inside, she spotted X trapped under a burning piece of roof that he couldn’t push off by himself. Y quickly assisted him by pulling the debris at the same time as he pushed.

The house was starting to collapse, however, as the stairs started to collapse and the ceilings were falling apart. Y decided that she couldn’t risk going back down the stairs. She was going to have to jump through the windows. But almost all of them were blocked by intense flames, leaving only one safe to jump through. That window wasn’t the same one she kicked every morning, and as such, didn’t have a small roof right below. But there was no other choice. She pulled X up to his feet, supported him by his side and jumped through the window and fell towards the ground from the second floor. Luckily, it wasn’t that big of a drop, so neither one was injured.

Both Dex Holders coughed for air and for a while, remained lying prone on the ground. Y briefly checked over her body. A few minor cuts, but nothing major. Or at least to her own body. Her favorite clothes on the other hand… Well, it was irrelevant. For now.

“Ungh… X, are you okay?” she asked as she slowly pushed herself off the ground.

“Yeah,” the boy coughed out. “Thanks for that.”

Y was about to say something when she yelped in pain and her body was dragged upwards. X quickly looked up and saw a large sickly-green colored Dragonite holding the girl by her hair. Y slowly spun to see it herself while trying to prevent her ponytail from being torn off.

The Dragonite simply punched her in the stomach with Fire Punch as it let go of her. X heard the air escaping the girl’s lungs and saw her eyes open wide in pain for a split second before they closed. Y’s body flew backwards several meters and crashed into the ground, rolling a little before coming to a complete halt facing away from him. X tried to crawl towards her as he realized that she wasn’t moving at all.

“Y!” he yelled in horror. He got to her side and realized that the girl had lost consciousness. He shook her by her shoulders, but she remained unconscious.

“That’s what she gets for interfering in my business,” a voice came from behind.

X glared at the source and saw a trainer walking towards him with a very, very _slightly_ different colored Garchomp and an orange Chandelure following. The hat and sunglasses made his unique features impossible to see…

“Who are you? What do you want?” X demanded as he got up to his feet.

“None of your business and your Mega Ring,” the trainer said calmly. “You will relinquish it if you value your life and the girl’s.”

X sent out his Kangaskhan. “Just try and take it!”

The trainer gave a signal and the Dragonite and Chandelure backed away. His Garchomp roared and stepped forward. The trainer put something on the Garchomp and X narrowed his eyes. The Garchomp was now wearing a helmet… with rocks sticking out of it.

X pressed the Key Stone on his Mega Ring. The Kangaskhan glowed brightly and exuded intense energy and in that instant, the baby Kangaskhan popped out of its parent’s pocket, ready to fight.

“Let’s go! Double Edge!” X ordered.

The trainer calmly gave his order as well. His Garchomp roared in anger and charged forward, unbridled fury burning from its eyes. The Mach Pokémon struck first once again. It rammed into the Mega Kangaskhan and proceeded to thrash around violently.

The Mega Kangaskhan barely managed to withstand the Outrage and attacked back. It gathered its strength and recklessly collided into the Garchomp, risking its own well being to deliver a powerful blow. The baby Kangaskhan mimicked its parent, ramming itself into the Garchomp as well.

But something happened. Just touching the Garchomp itself gave a painful scratch to the two Kangaskhan, as if they just rubbed themselves onto a huge block made of sandpaper. And of course, the Garchomp had lowered its head, allowing the rocks on its helmet to block some of the hits, thus dealing even more damage to the two Kangaskhan. _Then_ the recoil from the Double Edge kicked in… And it was enough to finish off the Mega Kangaskhan that had suffered terrible, terrible damage from Garchomp’s outrageously powerful attack.

The shiny Garchomp roared as the Mega Kangaskhan staggered backwards repeatedly and eventually toppled over. The baby Kangaskhan did as well, and its appearance reverted to normal as it was no longer capable of maintaining the Mega Evolution.

X quickly scrambled towards the Kangaskhan to check its condition. The shiny Dragonite marched over and yanked him above the ground, however, forcing his attention onto it. The Dragonite’s trainer walked over towards the Kangaskhan and removed its Mega Stone.

“I’ll be taking your Mega Ring now,” he said as he approached X.

Y started to cough as her consciousness returned. With a hand over her stomach, she grunted and struggled up to her knees. She recalled what happened and looked over at X and gasped in surprise at his predicament.

“X!” she coughed out. She quickly stepped towards him but stumbled. She still forced her way forward, despite having no plans once she got to X’s side.

The shiny Garchomp prevented her from getting to him, however, as it struck her with its tail the moment she got close, sending her flying into the intact wall of the burning house. Y fell to her knees and tried to catch her breath as the wind had been knocked out of her again. The Garchomp towered over her and stomped her down. It then set a foot on her upper back and began to push down.

“No, no! Let her go!” X demanded as he struggled to break free of the shiny Dragonite’s grip.

“Your Mega Ring,” the trainer said calmly. “That’s all I want.”

X hesitated, as he wasn’t willing to give in to evil’s demands. But when his eyes moved towards Y… The girl was screaming in pain, but no sound came out as her chest was being pushed into the ground.

“… Take it!” X said at last, unable to watch his childhood friend being tortured. He took off his Mega Ring and tossed it on the ground.

The trainer picked it up and gave a signal to the Dragonite. The Dragon Pokémon delivered a Fire Punch to X and immediately slammed him into the wall of the burning house to knock him unconscious. The Dragonite’s trainer walked over towards Y, who was silently writhing in agony since the Garchomp had stopped torturing her.

The girl couldn’t open her eyes, so she couldn’t see what was about to happen to her. The trainer delivered a kick to her head to knock her unconscious and then returned his Pokémon.

“Consider yourselves lucky,” he said as he proceeded to walk away. “Next time, you won’t get off so easy.”

* * *

**And now it's time for some RNG jokes...**

* * *

Alternate Lines:

“Wow, you must be like the luckiest person in the world,” Blue said in awe.

Peter coughed.

(1 of 5)

“Well, it’s not like you can force a shiny Pokémon to appear by standing perfectly still and doing absolutely nothing for 96 minutes straight before walking into the grass.”

(2 of 5)

“It’s not like you can force a shiny Pokémon to appear by repeatedly calling Professor Elm or something on your Pokégear before running into the grass.”

(3 of 5)

“It’s not like you can force a shiny Pokémon to appear by repeatedly using some Pokétch functions and flipping through your journal before running into the grass.”

(4 of 5)

“It’s not like you can force a shiny Pokémon to appear by repeatedly listening to your Chatot rambling before running into the grass.”

(5 of 5)

“Well, I have better things to do than hatch a million eggs to find one shiny Pokémon and then discarding or selling all the others, you know? So… yeah, luck.”


	3. Hand of Darkness

Chapter 3: Hand of Darkness

August 22, Vaniville Town, Kalos, 1 pm…

X woke up when he felt something gently shaking him. With a groan, he opened his eyes and sat up. His Chespin and Charmander were right next to him, as they were the ones who woke him up. They looked happy to see him awake, as it pained them to know that they weren’t involved in the battle earlier. X had kept them out of the battle as they would not have been able to do anything. For the same reason, he kept his Manectric in its Pokéball too. Manectric taking on a Garchomp? That would never work. What would it do? Thunderbolt? Flamethrower?

“Thanks guys…” he said as he blinked a few times to get into focus again. That Fire Punch was definitely going to hurt for the next few days. But that wasn’t important right now. There were more pressing issues. He quickly scanned left and right and soon spotted Y still lying face down on the ground not too far away. “Y!”

He crawled towards her and flipped her over so that he could see her face. She was still alive, thankfully, as she was breathing. Though weakly. She still hadn’t regained consciousness yet, and that was very worrying. There was also a large dark bruise forming over Y’s left eye area, where she was kicked by that enemy trainer.

X gently shook her by the shoulders, but she didn’t respond. Even if Y wouldn’t regain consciousness, he couldn’t just stay next to a burning house and wait. Sooner or later, the firefighters would get here, then news reporters followed by camera wielding parasites known as paparazzi. He didn’t like either of them, as he found no distinct difference. Alexa was a news reporter (sort of) while Viola was a paparazzi in his perspective, and he didn’t like either of them.

X got up to his feet and carefully pulled Y up as well. He didn’t have the arm power to carry her in his arms, so he put her arm around his neck and simply supported her from the side, effectively dragging her limp body. He never actually tried to carry Y in his arms, as it was embarrassing for both of them, in more ways than one. If he couldn’t carry her, that meant his arms were horribly weak or Y was heavy. Both were embarrassing and downright humiliating.

After returning his Pokémon to their Pokéballs, X headed towards Y’s house, which wasn’t that far. Since he didn’t have the keys, he had to frisk the girl, which would have been horribly awkward if Y was awake. Luckily, Y had her keys in her skirt/dress pocket, so the frisking ended before it got way too weird.

X headed upstairs to Y’s bedroom so that the girl may lie comfortably on her bed and rest. He wanted her to wake up as soon as possible, but then again, after a beating like what she suffered, she had to rest.

He removed her hat and gently set her down on her bed. He tried shaking her one last time before he tucked her in her bed and let her rest up. He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her face.

“Y… Why did you try to save me back there?” he muttered quietly. “You could’ve just stayed down after that Fire Punch. Why did you try to come to me after that? You didn’t have to be beaten by the Garchomp like that…”

X let out a sigh and began to think. That enemy trainer. Why did he want his Mega Ring? The same reason as Team Flare from a while back? Is that why he took the Mega Stone as well? But it didn’t make sense. Team Flare was an organization and therefore had goals and objectives that required tremendous amount of money and manpower. This one trainer would not have the same objectives. Why did he target him then and take his Mega Ring?

He recalled hearing that Korrina had gone missing a month ago, but he initially thought that the Gym Leader was gone on a personal mission. Some kind of Mega Stone related training or proving session. But perhaps her disappearance was related to that enemy trainer too. Was he targeting everyone capable of Mega Evolution? Then in Kalos, the next target would obviously be Diantha. And given how strong this trainer’s Garchomp was, his other Pokémon might be just as strong too. In which case Diantha’s Mega Gardevoir would definitely not be able to defend its trainer…

And if the enemy trainer had an objective that required lots of money and manpower… Manpower issue _could_ be solved if he had a ton of friends helping out. But likely, he had other methods, since he was all alone when he attacked earlier. And the financial problem would be solved immediately if he targeted some super rich people. But he didn’t kidnap Y or anything. So someone even richer? Perhaps even outside of Kalos?

X sighed again. Right now, he didn’t know what was really happening. All he could do was make an educated guess, that this enemy trainer would likely target anyone in the world who could use Mega Evolution, or was filthy rich. If there was someone who was in both categories, that person had a giant target on his back. Or _her_ back…

…

Meanwhile, Lake Acuity, Sinnoh…

…

Platinum took a deep breath of refreshing (and cold) air. Ever since she got glasses a few days back, she was getting constant headaches. Diamond suggested that staying indoors all day long would not be helping and offered to take her on a little ice skating trip. And now, here she was, in Lake Acuity (after getting permission from Candice).

“Do you feel better, Lady?” Diamond asked with a smile as he proceeded to put his skates on.

“Yes. This is much better.” Platinum pushed her cute black framed glasses up and tried to look as far away as the environment allowed. Seeing everything so clearly was certainly amazing. Seeing things a bit too close was a little dizzying though. But soon, that would change.

“Have you ever tried skating before?” Diamond asked.

Platinum looked a little nervous. “No. Can you teach me?”

“Sure thing.”

The heiress put her skates on and tightened the laces as per Diamond’s instructions. Walking in the snow with the skates wasn’t hard at all. It was an interesting experience, as she didn’t have quite the balance as she would with normal shoes.

Diamond stepped on the ice first. He slowly backed away so that Platinum would have room too. The heiress took a nervous gulp and carefully stepped on the ice. Immediately, she felt like she was about to lose balance.

“Be careful, Lady,” Diamond said as he prepared to catch her if she fell.

Platinum soon regained balance and let out a sigh of relief. Diamond watched her for a couple of seconds before he began to show her how to actually move. The heiress slowly mimicked his actions, taking tiny steps on the ice to get a feel for it. Diamond decided to accelerate the process by holding her hand and skating with her, practically forcing Platinum to take longer strides. But she enjoyed it, as she felt safe with Diamond holding her hand. Eventually, Diamond (reluctantly) let go of her hand skated ahead, wanting the heiress to skate after him.

She realized what he was doing and with a bright smile, skated as fast as she could while feeling comfortable. But perhaps playing tag on ice was too much right now, as Platinum began to slip a couple of minutes later. She swung her arms to try to regain balance but failed. “Diamond!” she shrieked out. “Help!”

Diamond quickly skated in front of her to catch her with his arms. To prevent a collision, he embraced her when she came and slid in the direction of her movement. Unfortunately, since this meant that he was looking the opposite direction, he couldn’t see the edge of the frozen lake and ended up falling backwards into the snow with Platinum in his arms.

The heiress sighed in relief as she realized that Diamond landed on soft snow, and that she didn’t exactly hurt herself by falling on the ice.

“Are you okay, Lady?” Diamond asked with a smile.

Platinum smiled and nodded. She soon started to giggle as she was having so much fun today. “Thank you for catching me Diamond.”

The girl soon got off of Diamond so that he could get up to his feet. The boy offered to help her get up afterwards, and she accepted without the slightest hesitation. She slipped again immediately, and ended up falling into his arms once more.

Diamond laughed and Platinum giggled some more. Diamond couldn’t help but notice that the 16 year old heiress was still just as innocent as she was when she was 12. Despite having matured so much (physically too, as Diamond tried to avoid staring), whenever she was around him, she giggled like a little girl and always had a smile on her lips. Usually, she was rather cold and didn’t exactly smile that often, but that changed completely around him. And he really appreciated it, as it meant that there were no walls between them. The heiress did not have any sort of defenses up around him.

As they continued to skate, Diamond kept a close eye on Platinum’s expression. She was already cute before whenever she smiled. But now that she had glasses, she looked so much cuter somehow. It also had a negative side effect, though. When she was angry, those glasses somehow made her look even scarier than normal. Good thing she was never angry around him. He saw her angry once recently (at a rude visitor), and that sent serious shivers down his spine…

While it wouldn’t be lying that Platinum’s beauty was a factor in his crush on her, it was far from being the only factor. She was probably more than twice as smart as he was. And those glasses made her look super smart, but not in a nerdy kind of way. Although Platinum was still rather cold to strangers, once she warmed up to them (like she did with him and Pearl), she was extremely kindhearted and caring. And as a trainer, she had surpassed a level that was impossible for him to even reach. He had seen her battle, and he had been her practice partner. She was so much stronger than him.

All in all, Diamond viewed Platinum as being perfect. She was _the_ perfect girl. Not that he ever said that to her because he was too embarrassed. Now. If he _only_ had the courage to confess… Damn it, it’s been 4 years and he made no progress on that regard. He was just afraid, that’s all. He was worried about _both_ of Platinum’s possible responses. If she felt the same towards him too, then he feared that he won’t be good enough for her. Because he knew that she deserved the best. And he doubted that he was the best. But if Platinum rejected his love… ouch. She probably wouldn’t break his heart (as she wouldn’t reject him outright), but still, the awkwardness would be horrible. So Diamond could not dare to confess to her. And instead, just vowed to protect her at all costs, regardless of who threatened her.

At least things were going well. He was taking her out on many dates without her realizing it. She only thought that he was treating her as a friend, going to various places to strengthen friendship. Which was why she always asked if Pearl was coming as well. And almost every single time, Pearl was left behind at the Berlitz Mansion without Platinum’s knowing.

So Diamond didn’t want to do anything that might disrupt this “routine”. He’ll keep to the status quo, and hope that Platinum would one day bring about a change, for the better.

It was soon time for dinner, so the two Dex Holders changed into regular shoes and sound some place to sit. Luckily, in the summer, Lake Acuity wasn’t _too_ cold. It was cold enough for the lake to remain frozen enough to skate, but not too cold for risk of frostbite and whatnot.

Diamond set his jacket on the snow so that the heiress could sit on it. Since he was wearing solid winter pants (as opposed to a skirt for Platinum), he could sit on the snow without any consequences. He then began to dig into his bag to take out the meals he had prepared and packed.

Platinum carefully sat on Diamond’s coat and gladly received the plate Diamond held for her. She took the utensils and after thanking her friend for the meal, began to eat. She always enjoyed whatever he had made for her. He was such an excellent friend and cook…

Diamond observed Platinum’s expressions to make sure she was enjoying the food before he began to eat his own food. Ever the heavy eater, he had even packed dessert as well. And much to Platinum’s joy, it was her favorite snack in the whole world. A strawberry cake that Diamond made. Not from a bakery, as she found that to be lacking. For some reason.

Again, she giggled happily and started eating the cake slice. She let out a satisfied sigh as she savored the flavor. It was so delicious… But she didn’t want to eat it too quickly, as she wanted the flavor to last as long as possible.

Diamond watched Platinum’s reactions, happy to know that his creation pleased her so much. His eyes slowly drifted towards the girl’s wrists. On her left wrist was the updated Pokétch. Platinum had bought him one as well, not that it was necessary. And on her right wrist… Huh. What was that? He never saw that before…

“Lady? What’s that on your right wrist?”

The heiress glanced down and saw the large black ring on her wrist. She quickly swallowed the cake. “Oh, this is something that Professor Rowan gave me yesterday. He also gave me an odd stone as well, and with this ring and that stone, I can greatly enhance my Lopunny’s powers for a brief moment.”

“Cool. Can you show me?” Diamond asked.

Platinum smiled as she put the plate down. “Certainly.” She sent out her Lopunny and made sure that it was still holding on to the odd stone. “Please beware that Lopunny becomes quite aggressive. It is not dangerous as it still listens to me, but do not be so alarmed.” She looked at her Pokémon and pressed a button on her ring. “Lopunny, Mega Evolve.”

…

Meanwhile, Lumiose City, Kalos, 6 pm…

…

Diantha quickly made her way down the streets of Lumiose City while wearing her disguise. Another day in Lumiose. Another really busy day, especially now since it was dinner time. Thanks to her disguise though, the Kalos champion was able to sneak around the various buildings without being detected. She was just some random lady walking around in Lumiose. Nothing more. No large groups of fans are going to chase her today.

“Hey! Miss Diantha’s over there!” came a voice from behind all of a sudden.

The Kalos champion gasped in shock and spun around. She saw a horde of people running over from the nearby café, all holding something to write on and something to write with. Diantha quickly sidestepped into a nearby dark alley to avoid being caught. Getting caught here meant thousands of autographs. No thanks.

“Diantha?” came a familiar year oddly hollow voice from behind.

The Kalos champion looked back and immediately had to duck to avoid a punch from a Pokémon. A Lucario… Diantha managed to jump away from the hostile Lucario while venturing deeper into the alley in the process. She soon spotted a familiar silhouette in the darkness.

“… Korrina?” she muttered in shock, as she remembering hearing about the Shalour Gym Leader’s disappearance a month ago.

The Gym Leader gave no orders, yet the Lucario continued to attack. Diantha sent out her Gardevoir to repel the attack.

Another silhouette soon came to vision next to Korrina: a male trainer with his hands in his pockets.

“Your Mega… Necklace… thing, please,” he said calmly.

Diantha glanced at Korrina, who still stood there like a statue. “What have you done with her?” she asked. “Korrina would never attack anyone. Especially not anyone who studied under her grandfather.”

“Ask yourself,” the trainer answered. “Korrina?”

“… Awaiting directives…” the Gym Leader muttered in monotone.

“Attack her.”

“… I obey…”

Korrina suddenly lunged forward while aiming a punch. Diantha blocked the oncoming punch and her Gardevoir quickly locked the Shalour Gym Leader in Psychic-stasis. She then glared at the male trainer, preparing for a battle.

The trainer sent out a Pokémon as well. With a distinct sparkle, a bright golden Scizor popped out, clamping its pincers menacingly. Diantha pressed her Key Stone, and her Gardevoir soon changed into Mega Gardevoir.

“Shadow Ball!” Diantha ordered, no longer caring about being detected by the fans of Lumiose, as there were much bigger problems.

The Mega Gardevoir did as ordered and launched a large Shadow Ball at the Scizor. The shiny Scizor took the hit and staggered backwards, but still retaliated by charging straight forward with its head. Through the smoke caused by the Shadow Ball, the Mega Gardevoir couldn’t see the Scizor coming and as such, the shiny Pokémon’s Iron Head managed to connect with its target. The Mega Gardevoir tried to regain balance from the powerful attack. It never took such a hit before and it didn’t know how to recover quickly.

“Another Shadow Ball!” Diantha ordered, fully aware that she had to press the attack or lose the battle.

The Mega Gardevoir shook away the shock of being hit so hard and gathered energy for another Shadow Ball. Just then, the Scizor charged forward with unnatural speed, getting within melee distance before the Shadow Ball was halfway into being charged up. The shiny Scizor thrust one of its pincers at the Mega Gardevoir in the chin, delivering the Bullet Punch with pinpoint accuracy.

The sudden Bullet Punch caused the Mega Gardevoir to lose focus, and the forming Shadow Ball dissipated. The shiny Scizor took the opportunity to deliver a series of Bullet Punch to the already defeated Mega Gardevoir, until it could no longer maintain the Mega Evolution.

The enemy trainer sent out another Pokémon. This one was a golden pink Weavile, and the moment it appeared from its Pokéball with a distinct sparkle, it charged straight towards Diantha and pinned her against the wall with a shard of ice.

“Your Mega Necklace thing. That’s what I’m here for,” the trainer said calmly.

Diantha gritted her teeth. “If you think that defeating one Pokémon is enough to defeat me, you are mist-”

The shiny Weavile suddenly struck the Kalos champion in the face with an icy fist, slamming her head into the wall in the process. The famed actress and champion slumped over from the impact and slowly slid towards the ground.

The trainer walked over towards the unconscious actress and removed her Key Stone. His Weavile had removed the fallen Gardevoir’s Mega Stone as well. The trainer than glanced at Korrina, who had been freed from the Psychic-stasis when the battle began. She was still standing like a statue, waiting for the next command.

Upon instruction, she returned her Lucario and lifted Diantha onto her shoulders. The trainer took Gardevoir’s Pokéball from the champion’s bag and returned the Gardevoir to make the transportation easier. Once all the Pokémon have been returned, the trainer sent out his aerial transport Pokémon, the light green Salamence. He jumped on and upon instruction, Korrina climbed on as well while still holding on to Diantha.

Now to head over to Terminus Cave and finish his current task…


	4. With Friends Like These...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to note the dates of each chapter's sections, as they are not all the same. Until the Dex Holders meet up, the dates will jump back and forth as the location changes from various regions.

Chapter 4: With Friends Like These…

August 18, Pallet Town, Kanto, 10:20 am…

Green slowly read out Blue’s personal letter to him. The details were surprising to him, as he had no idea what she was talking about (or writing about).

_To Green, though I doubt you care enough to find this message._

_You’re still mad at me, aren’t you? I know you are. I can feel it. The last time we met, you said that you would be fine if I left you alone permanently. For a while, I didn’t think much of it. You were angry, so you would’ve said things that you didn’t mean. You were angry because of what I said, but how was that my fault? How was I supposed to know that you would be upset like that, if you never talk to me? Every time I visit you, you tell me to go away. I return 4 months later, and again, you tell me to go away. So how am I supposed to know what angers you? But whatever._

_A month or so later, I had my birthday. I didn’t expect a party or a gift from anyone, but no calls. No messages. Nothing from you, nothing from Red, nothing from Crys, nothing from anyone except Silver. I don’t expect Red to remember when my birthday is, but I thought you’d remember. For your birthdays, I always give you stuff, don’t I? So you really hate me, huh? So much that the notion of “give and take” doesn’t apply._

_I’ve been thinking about it for a long time now. And I finally realized after all this time that you never considered me as a friend or anything. When I fell into a coma 6 years ago when my parents disappeared, what were you fighting for? Red said that he was fighting for my sake. But what about you? Your grandfather, right? What happened to me probably never even crossed your mind once. Even Pryce cares for me a lot more than you. In fact, I feel more at home in his Gym than at yours._

_Fine. I’ll admit it. I’m an idiot for taking 11 years to realize that you hate me. But now that I know, I can do something about it. You don’t want me around, and I no longer have any reason to be around you. Foolishly trying to get close to you is just going to upset you and hurt me. I already wasted 11 years of my life on you, and I’m not going to waste another second. So goodbye, Green. I hope we never meet again._

Green blinked as he reread the letter repeatedly. Crystal looked quite worried, and Red seemed to be bewildered.

“… What happened between you two?” he asked. “I thought you two were getting along great…”

“Did you two have a fight?” Crystal asked. “You never said anything about it.”

Green set the letter down and sat down on his chair. He slowly began recalling the last time he saw her. Thanks to Blue’s letter, he was able to remember the vague details of their last encounter.

… There was a fight. He was angry. And he said things that he should never have said. And although he had forgotten about it as he returned to his daily duties, Blue remembered it.

Green suddenly rose to his feet. After checking that he had Charizard’s Pokéball on him, he headed straight towards One Island so that he could find Blue. Red and Crystal simply watched him disappear into the distance, as they didn’t know what to do or say.

…

Two days later, August 20, Coumarine City, Kalos, 11 am…

…

Blue stepped out of the ferry and took a long look around. Kalos was certainly… beautiful. She wasn’t easily impressed by the sight of a beautiful coastal area, since she lived in One Island and saw the coast every day, but Kalos was different. And she liked it, a lot.

She took a deep breath. Even the air felt good. She felt so… good now. It definitely was a great idea to visit Kalos. … Now what? Should she call Peter and take his offer of giving her a tour of the region? … Maybe later. Blue’s independent nature didn’t allow her to ask for assistance right away. She was going to tour around the region by herself at first. Then she’d ask a Kalos native to give her a detailed tour. She had most of everything she needed for outdoors camping, so there would be no problems at all.

Blue began to walk around, looking for a Pokémart. Or a Pokémon Center. She needed to buy the region’s map first. Curiously, she couldn’t find either building. Usually, they’re very distinct and easily spotted, but not here, it seemed. She soon decided to ask someone. There was some sort of a food stall in the vicinity, so she headed towards it.

“Hello miss, how can I help?” asked the clerk with a warm smile when she approached him.

“Could you please tell me where I can find the Pokémart? Or the Pokémon Center?” Blue asked, a little surprised at the clerk’s kindness.

“You’re not from around here, are you, miss?” the clerk asked. “Here in Kalos, the Pokémart is inside the Pokémon Center.”

“Oh. That’s certainly interesting,” Blue said.

“And for the Pokémon Center, all you have to do is take that monorail right over there,” the clerk said as he pointed at the direction of the monorail. “Once you get off, you can’t miss it.”

“Thank you very much,” Blue said with a smile of her own.

“Have a complimentary berry,” the clerk said, indicating the rows of berries on display. “It’s on the house.”

“Oh, wow! Thank you!” Blue exclaimed. She soon picked up a Pecha Berry. “I’ll take this one!”

“Of course. Enjoy! And welcome to Kalos!”

“Thank you so much!” Blue said. She waved at the clerk, and he waved back. Blue smiled as she headed towards the monorail. She bit into the Pecha Berry and enjoyed the sweetness.

As she walked, she noticed several differences between Kalos and Kanto. For one, as she walked by, the passer bys acknowledged her with a nod or a smile. Something that not even her so-called friends did. The clerks were so courteous and respectful. The monorail clerks were equally friendly as that berry clerk, and that was something Blue had never really experienced. People were actually being nice to her. … Wow.

… What was this feeling? Blue felt warm inside. She couldn’t help but smile, and she was really excited to get to travel around this region. Was this… happiness? She hadn’t experienced that feeling in years… but now, she was finally happy.

Blue watched the beautiful coastline through the windows of the monorail. She bit into the free Pecha Berry and made her decision. ‘ _I’m never going back to Kanto, ever again._ ’

…

Meanwhile, Saffron City, Kanto, 12 pm…

…

Green got off of his Charizard and stared at the building in front of him. The Saffron City Gym. Where a certain Rocket commander worked after returning from a brief vacation to a faraway region. More importantly, this Rocket commander was psychic, so she would be invaluable in his efforts to locate Blue. Because the girl’s parents had no idea where she went. And Silver had no clue either. He searched all around Kanto and Johto for the past two days and got nothing. So he needed help.

Green soon opened the door, and Sabrina’s assistant approached him. This assistant was standard-issue to all Gyms that were regularly operating. Namely, every Gym except the one in Viridian, since the Gym Leader for that was _never around_. As such, Green didn’t have an assistant. He had a hologram. But Sabrina and the other Gym Leaders had assistants who informed challengers about the Gym, or told them to return later if the Gym Leader wasn’t present.

“I’m sorry,” the assistant said to Green. “But Miss Sabrina is currently out of town.”

“Where is she?” Green asked. “She’s not on vacation again, is she?”

“No. I believe she’s currently in Celadon City’s Gym.”

“What’s she doing there?”

“I’m not sure.”

Green soon left the Gym and headed towards Celadon City. Since that city was right beside Saffron, it didn’t take long. Upon arriving at the Celadon Gym, Green glanced through the windows and spotted Erika and Sabrina talking to each other while holding cups of tea in their hands. He quickly opened the door and pushed aside the trainers who tried to block his path.

“How’d you like Unova?” Erika asked after taking a sip. “Or acting, for that matter?”

“It’s nice,” Sabrina answered. “Reminded me of the old days, you know? It’s been too long since I just had fun.”

“… Do you… have any regrets?”

Sabrina let out a long sigh. “What do you want me to say, Erika? It’s been almost 15 years now. Lots of things happened. Some regrets, but I can’t say I want to undo the past.”

“…”

“… Sorry. But at least we can talk again. And with the boss accomplishing his main objective, I won’t be as busy, so we can talk more frequently. Give time and effort, we can be like we used to.”

“If you stop being evil, then it would take less time and effort.”

Sabrina smiled a little. “That’s not how you view me, is it? Then and now?”

Erika smiled back. “Reading my mind again?”

“As I said before, I don’t have to. I know you too well.” Sabrina took a glance over at Green. “Looks like you have a visitor.”

“Actually,” Green said as he came over. “I’m here to talk to you.”

“What for?” Sabrina asked.

“Can’t you read my mind?”

“I prefer not to,” Sabrina said as she took a sip of tea. “Unless I absolutely must.”

“Like the old days, right?” Erika said. “I never beat you in rock-paper-scissors or anything like that.”

“I told you a thousand times before, that’s just luck,” Sabrina replied with a smile. “Besides, it’s nothing like those archery practices, now is it?”

Erika felt her teacup trembling a little as it was hit by a very weak telekinetic force. “Cheater.”

“And I thought you always practiced.” Sabrina took another sip of tea and returned her attention to Green. “Getting back on topic. What do you want?”

“I need you to use your psychic powers,” Green started. “I need your help in finding Blue.”

“Why?”

“It’s important.”

Sabrina took another sip and set the cup down. “Very well then.”

“Blue?” Erika muttered. “I thought she was a close friend of yours, Green.”

“So did I,” Green said quietly. “… And so did she.”

“Whatever happened, I’m sure you’ll be friends again,” Erika said after a sip of tea. “Just like us. Isn’t that right, old friend?”

Sabrina smiled. “As long as one of you doesn’t turn _evil_ , right?”

“How long would it take for you to find Blue?” Green asked, preventing the two female Gym Leaders from engaging in another long conversation.

“Depends,” Sabrina answered, the warmth and friendliness from before gone from her voice.

Sabrina sent out her Alakazam to borrow its strength. With it focusing, she leaned forward in her chair and closed her eyes. Erika watched in silence and took another sip of tea. She glanced at Green and signaled with her cup of tea, asking if he wanted a cup as well. Green shook his head.

After several minutes, Sabrina leaned back to her chair and opened her eyes. She blinked a few times and moved her head around a little.

“Well?” Green asked. “Did you find her?”

Sabrina picked up her cup of tea again. “No.”

“What? Why?”

“I can’t sense her, in Kanto or Johto,” Sabrina said rather coldly. “It means she’s either dead, or too far away to be detected.”

Green cursed under his breath. … Now what?

“Good luck to you,” Sabrina said dismissively. She returned her attention to Erika. “So, Erika. How would you like to try acting? The Pokéstar Studios recruit all sorts of volunteers for a try-out movie.”

“You know I don’t have time for that,” Erika said. “I’m a professor, remember.”

“Go on a vacation. I’ll cover for you. We did study together.”

“So you can scare my students? … I’ll give it a thought.”

Green watched the two Gym Leaders talk for a few seconds before he left. Even Sabrina’s method failed. … Was it pointless to find Blue? If she really didn’t want anyone to find her, she could disappear forever…

…

August 22, Vaniville Town, Kalos, 2 pm…

…

X snapped out of his thoughts when he detected motion in front of him. He blinked a few times to get back into focus and realized that Y was starting to wake up.

“Y? Are you okay?”

Y let out a groan but forced her eyes to open. She managed to look over at him. “… X?” she said, her voice barely audible. She tried to sit up, but found it very difficult.

“Take it easy.”

“Ungh… What happened?” Y asked as she tried to focus. “… That guy… what did he want?”

X let out a short sigh. “He wanted my Mega Ring.”

Y quickly looked down at her friend’s wrists. To her surprise and horror, there was no Mega Ring. “X… you gave up your Mega Ring? How did…”

“Sorry… but I had no choice,” X said quietly. The image of Y writhing in agony while being crushed into the ground by a Garchomp was going to haunt him for a long while.

Y soon remembered more about the actual fight, and realized that she was the reason why he had relinquished his Mega Ring. She looked down in shame and sighed. “I’m so sorry, X… I shouldn’t have charged at him like that…”

X gave her a light pat on her arm. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it back. Right now, you’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”

“… Thanks…” Y looked down at her clothes and noticed a rather large burn mark on her dress, made by the “about-to-vomit” colored Dragonite’s Fire Punch. Not to mention other scorched marks from saving X from his burning house. “… I should probably change now.”

X nodded and left Y’s bedroom so that she may change in privacy. Or rather, he wanted to avoid the awkwardness, as he knew that Y would change her clothes anyways if only her closest friends were present.

For the next several minutes, X paced around outside the room, thinking of possible ways to defeat the enemy trainer once he found him. Oh, things weren’t going to end like this. No way. He wasn’t going to let this one slide. This guy burned down his house, stole his Mega Ring, stole his Mega Stone, almost killed his closest friend, and beat the hell out of him. This was war.

But unfortunately, the enemy trainer was far too powerful. So more allies would be needed. The enemy was aiming at everyone with Mega Evolution capabilities. So all X had to do was gather those who were being targeted by the enemy. But how would he even find them? Perhaps Professor Sycamore could help.

“… X,” came Y’s voice from inside the room. “Come in here for a sec.”

X did as told and the moment he entered the room, he immediately swiveled around. Y was standing half naked with her back turned to him. She had her shorts on, but… nothing for the top half of her body.

“Y, put a shirt on,” he said as he focused on the wall outside the door.

“Just look at me,” Y said, still with her back turned to him. “… My back hurts a lot. Is there anything you can see?”

X hesitantly turned to look at her once more. … Did Y really have to stand in front of a full length mirror, without wearing _anything_ on top? … At least she had her hands up to cover herself a little… X soon chose to focus on her request and stared at her bare back. He frowned as he saw a huge dark bruise on her upper back. He focused a little more and noticed that the bruise was roughly in the shape of a Garchomp’s foot…

“There’s a big bruise,” X answered, feeling guilty for what happened to her. The enemy just wanted his Mega Ring. If he had relinquished it earlier, Y wouldn’t have been hurt like this. He leaned closer and felt around the bruise with the tip of his finger. “But it doesn’t seem too bad,” he said, trying to make her feel better. “You’ll heal quickly. Just don’t do anything strenuous. … You’ll be okay.”

Y hissed in pain when X’s finger brushed a particularly painful part of the bruise. X quickly withdrew his hand, but continued to observe the injury. No bones seemed to have been injured. And Y wasn’t bleeding anywhere, which was quite lucky. That Garchomp’s claws could have stabbed her or it could have stomped hard enough to break her back, but she only had a bruise. Good…

X glanced at the mirror. From the reflection, he could see a big dark bruise on Y’s stomach as well, thanks to the Fire Punch from Dragonite. X rubbed where he was hit and felt pain from his own bruise too. Yep. Definitely war.

“Okay then… So, what do we do now?” Y asked as she regulated her breathing to minimize the pain.

“First, you put your clothes on. Second, we go and talk to Professor Sycamore to see if he knows anyone who’s been given a Mega Ring. Maybe he knows if another professor in another region has handed out Mega Rings before. It’s worth a shot.”

X soon left Y’s bedroom once more and waited until she finished dressing. She now had a sleeveless white shirt and matching white shorts, but kept everything else the same as her previous attire. Same black socks and pink hat.

After forcing X to change out of his burnt clothes as well (since Y was the one who buys his clothes, she always has extras in her room), Y proceeded to check outside to see if the coast was clear. The enemy trainer was long gone, and there weren’t any news reporters or paparazzi nearby either.

The two Kalos Dex Holders left the house and went over to the Rhyhorn that belonged to Y’s mother. Riding it would be faster than running, and with that tent still installed on its harness, it would be a comfortable ride as well.

Y opened the tent and climbed in and took her place in one half of the tent. She winced as she sat down, as her back was still hurting. X felt sorry for her once more and sighed before he got in the tent after her.

Once the two Kalos Dex Holders were seated, the Rhyhorn began to move. Y pulled her knees close to her chest and thought about the battle again. It was a brutal stomping, for sure. Literally for her. How would she beat that enemy trainer? Even with strong allies… it just didn’t seem possible.

“Maybe you should get some sleep,” X said abruptly.

“Huh?”

“I think you should try to sleep some more,” X said again. “You don’t look so good right now.”

Y shook her head. “I’m good, thanks…”

“Doesn’t seem like it,” X said with a worried look. “It’s going to be a long ride to Lumiose. Use it to rest up. Besides, you might feel much better when you wake up again.”

“Now that you mention it… I do have a bit of a headache,” Y mumbled. She soon nodded and sighed. “Maybe you’re right.”

X moved towards the tent entrance, freeing up the opposite half of the tent. “Just lie down and get some sleep. I’ll watch where we’re going.”

Y proceeded to lie down on the vacated space. Lying down definitely made her feel a little better. “You’re always right,” she said with a faint smile.

“Feeling better already?” X asked, relieved to know that Y was smiling, even if it was just a little.

“Yeah. Just remember to wake me up.”

X watched Y turn to her side as she tried to sleep. She was facing away from him now, so he simply stared at her for a while. The image of her writhing underneath the Garchomp’s foot kept flashing across his mind. X let out a silent sigh. It would be very hard for him to get over that image…

At the same time, Y berated herself for being unable to do anything to help X. She remembered how close X was to his Kangaskhan and how often he utilized Mega Evolution. He prized his Mega Ring, and he had to surrender it to the enemy because she was being tortured. … Never again. She would get stronger and she’d help him regain his lost Mega Ring and Mega Stone, even if it was the last thing she did.

…

Sandgem Town, Sinnoh, 9 pm…

…

“I really had fun today,” Platinum said with a bright smile as she stood in the doorway of her mansion. “I did not think skating would be so much fun. Thank you for letting me experience it.”

“No problem, Lady,” Diamond said with a smile of his own. “I had fun too. Your Lopunny certainly became a lot stronger and feisty, thanks to that ring.”

Platinum glanced down at her Mega Ring. “Yes. Only if it would be as docile as before…”

“Maybe if you feed it what it likes,” Diamond suggested. “Something sweet, maybe?”

“Can you come over and make it?” Platinum asked. “I doubt that I would be able to create something delicious and sweet.”

“Sure. Tomorrow, then?”

The heiress put on a slight frown. “Oh, I am so sorry, Diamond. But I am busy tomorrow… Maybe the day after?”

“Sure thing. I’ll bring something good,” Diamond said. “And something for you too, of course.”

Platinum replaced her slight frown with a bright smile. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Diamond glanced at the inside of the mansion through the windows. “Well, I don’t want to keep you outside like this for too long. I’ll be going now. I’ll see you in two days, Lady.”

Platinum nodded. “Okay. Thank you for today. And I will see you again. Good night.”

She waved at him and he waved back as he slowly headed back towards Twinleaf Town. Once he was sufficiently far enough away, Platinum took a deep breath and headed inside her mansion.

Diamond watched her disappear and sighed. “Damn it. Why can’t I just tell her? … She’s not going to reject me or anything… or I hope, anyways… Maybe soon… though it’s been 4 years and I still made no progress…”

He didn’t even know if Platinum was in love with anyone. Or if she even knew what love meant. Despite being so smart, she was SO dense in this topic. Oblivious, even more so than a Slowbro. Even blind, maybe. Maybe one day, though…

…

August 23, Route 101, Hoenn, 12 pm…

…

Sapphire stretched her arms and legs, getting warmed up for what was about to come. In front of her, her Blaziken was doing the same thing. Stretching its limbs in preparation. Sapphire rotated her neck, shook her hands in the air, and hopped up and down a little. Once she was certain she was ready, she faced her Blaziken.

“Are you ready?” she asked. The Blaziken nodded. “Good. Mega Evolve!” she ordered as she pressed the button on her Mega Bracelet.

The Blaziken soon went through the Mega Evolution process and became Mega Blaziken. It took a brief moment to stretch its limbs once more. It then faced its trainer, ready to begin.

“Good,” Sapphire said in satisfaction. “You know how it goes. Get ready.” She took a deep breath and… “Start!”

The Mega Blaziken immediately aimed a kick for her head. Sapphire ducked the attack and went for a sweep with her leg, forcing her Pokémon to jump. Sapphire immediately followed up with a kick, forcing her Pokémon to block and back off.

“Come on! You’re going to have to be faster than that!” Sapphire yelled out as she charged forward.

The Mega Blaziken quickly blocked her oncoming charge and followed with a rapid series of punches, getting faster and faster as its Speed Boost kicked in. Sapphire still reacted fast enough, blocking all of the punches successfully. But the power of the punches were increasing as well due to momentum, and Sapphire was slowly pushed back against the wall of her secret base. The Mega Blaziken aimed a punch, which Sapphire was forced to dodge. The punch smashed into the wall, immobilizing the Pokémon for a short while. Sapphire took the opportunity to land several kicks before having to dodge the counterattack.

The sparring continued for a few minutes until Ruby arrived at the scene. Seeing Sapphire sparring with her Mega Blaziken _indoors_ , Ruby immediately dropped the shopping bags in his hands. His Swampert looked surprised as well, but it was more afraid of Ruby’s incoming fury. It slowly backed away so it wouldn’t be burned by the fury.

“What are you doing?!” Ruby demanded, his eyes open wide in shock.

Sapphire and her Mega Blaziken both froze in place and looked over at him.

“Oh… Hi, Ruby!” Sapphire said awkwardly.

The Mega Blaziken reverted back to its normal state and silently backed away. Ruby’s Swampert silently entered the secret base and went near the Blaziken, out of Ruby’s sight. This was a routine occurrence, so both Pokémon knew what to do to avoid the bickering that would soon follow. Sapphire rubbed the back of her neck as she knew what was coming next.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop sparring inside our base?!” Ruby yelled as he approached her. He then spotted the large hole made in the wall. “… Look what you did! You compromised the structural integrity of our base!”

“Oh, come on!” Sapphire yelled. “That wasn’t even me!”

“… The dolls!” Ruby yelled in horror as he spotted the tragically burnt Torchic doll on the floor. There were more decorative dolls burnt and torn all over the secret base, along with burnt mats, smashed furniture, among others. “… I bought these on a clearance sale!”

Sapphire took a brief look around the base, realizing that she caused a lot more damage than she thought with the sparring. “… Hey, at least the TV is okay,” she said, pointing to the large TV on the corner of the base. Just as she finished speaking, the supporting table underneath the TV broke into two, and the TV fell over screen-first onto the floor with a loud smash. “… Um… Oops?”

Ruby smacked a hand over his face. He let out a long sigh and turned to face Sapphire. He _then_ saw what happened to her clothes. “… What have you done?! I just washed these!”

Sapphire looked down at her dirtied clothes. “… Meh. I never liked these, to be honest. I liked the older clothes you made for me. What happened to those?”

“I used them to create your current clothes,” Ruby answered. “You have to upgrade your style from time to time!”

Sapphire took a quick look up and down Ruby. “Says you, huh? Your _new_ clothes look pretty much the same to me.”

Ruby gasped in shock and horror. “How dare you!”

“Admit it! You need lessons in style and design!” Sapphire yelled.

“Again, how dare you! My clothes and yours are perfect! They are flawless!”

“They suck!”

As Ruby and Sapphire began their routine bickering, their two Pokémon sighed. Again with the bickers. When are they just going to kiss and get it over with?

The Blaziken reached into one of the shopping bags the Swampert was carrying and took out some food that Ruby had bought. It gave some to Swampert and took some for itself, and for a long while, the two Pokémon had nothing to do except eat, watch their trainers bicker, and occasionally glance at their Mega Stones attached to their arms.


	5. Smash and Grab

Chapter 5: Smash and Grab

August 22, Lumiose City, Kalos, 5 pm…

“Y, wake up.”

“…”

“Y? We’re here. So get up now.”

Y slowly stirred awake from her surprisingly deep sleep. She took a few seconds to recall why exactly her bed was moving, and why there was a slanted wall in front of her. Her “bed” was moving because she was sleeping in the tent on top of a Rhyhorn, and the slanted wall was the wall of the tent. Having remembered everything, she sat up and looked over at X. Her back wasn’t aching as much, so that nap was really helpful.

“Feeling better?” X asked.

Y smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Much better.”

“Good.”

The two Kalos Dex Holders crawled out of the tent. Y crawled out first, and took a glance around to make sure no camera wielding parasites were in sight. Once the coast was clear, X climbed out as well.

The two quickly entered the lab to avoid being spotted from afar. The lab felt… oddly empty. Usually there were lots of assistants running around and doing things, but not this time. Upstairs, things weren’t any different. It was still very quiet, with only a handful of people present.

“Professor?” X called out.

Prof. Sycamore looked up from his desk. “Oh? Hello there.”

“We need to ask you something,” Y said.

“Certainly.” The professor walked around the desk to approach the two Dex Holders. “How can I… … What happened?” he asked as he looked at Y.

Y put a hand over her left eye to cover up the dark bruise. “… That’s what we need to talk about.” She took a brief look around the lab. “… Where is everyone? Aren’t there more people here usually?”

“Yes, but a lot were sent to Couriway Town for a research mission,” the professor replied. “And they haven’t returned yet. So, back to you. What exactly happened?”

Prof. Sycamore listened as X and Y explained everything that happened, including what they believed was happening.

“A trainer attacking those with Mega capabilities,” he began once the explanation and postulation ended. “It does seem possible. Perhaps Korrina’s disappearance is related.”

“So is there another notable trainer in another region who has been given a Mega Ring?” Y asked.

“Yes. One.” Prof. Sycamore went over to his desk again to search for something. He came back shortly, having found the information. “One Mega Ring was sent to the region of Sinnoh as per request from Professor Rowan of Sandgem Town. He would know who received the Mega Ring.”

“Then that’s where we’re going,” X said.

“I’ll alert Diantha as well,” Prof. Sycamore said. “If that enemy is still out there, she is obviously the next target in this region. And I’ll warn Professor Rowan about this. If the enemy is as strong as you say, then we’ll need to take every precaution.”

The two Kalos Dex Holders nodded and soon left the lab. They had to get to Coumarine City as soon as possible so that they could take a ferry to Sinnoh. Hopefully, they’d be able to get there before the enemy trainer.

…

Two days later, August 24, Sandgem Town, Sinnoh, 11 am…

…

Platinum waited in front of the Pokémon Center for her two friends to arrive. As promised two days ago, Diamond was coming to give her Lopunny something tasty, and something special for her too. And together, they were going to Lake Verity for a variety of activities.

Prof. Rowan had warned her about the “Mega Hunter” from the region of Kalos, but the heiress wasn’t worried. According to Prof. Rowan, the only ones in Kalos that knew about her Mega Ring were Prof. Sycamore and perhaps the Mega Evolution guru and his closest relatives. They had no reason to tell anyone about her getting a Mega Ring, so no one had any reason to know. Similarly, the only ones in Sinnoh who knew of this were Prof. Rowan and those close to her, such as family, handful of maids and servants, and Diamond and Pearl. None of them would give such information away.

But Platinum did heed the warning a little, and kept her guard up at all times. Until Diamond and Pearl arrived, she would avoid any and all strangers. But what were the odds of her being detected by this Mega Hunter anyways? Even Diamond, the one closest to her, was completely unaware until two days ago.

“Lady!” came a familiar voice from afar.

Platinum looked over and spotted Diamond and Pearl running over towards her while waving. She smiled brightly and waved back as she made her way towards them as well.

“Hello, Diamond, Pearl,” she said happily. “I am glad to see you again.”

“Hi, Miss Lady,” Pearl said. “Ready to go?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure about this, Lady?” Diamond asked. “Professor Rowan told us about the Mega Hunter. If he knows you have a Mega Ring, he’ll come after you.”

“I will be okay,” Platinum said with a smile. “Thank you for your concern, though.”

“Maybe Dia’s right,” Pearl said. “Why don’t we do something where there are lots of witnesses available? That way, even if we do get attacked, lots of people can come and help us.”

“I highly doubt that the Mega Hunter is even aware that I have a Mega Ring,” Platinum said. “Not many people know about it, and I doubt they would have revealed the information.”

“I’m just worried about you,” Diamond said.

Platinum smiled sheepishly. “Thank you. But I will not be hiding. If I hide just because of this Mega Hunter, then I will have to do so continuously until he is no longer a threat. And that is an uncertainty. I will not lose my opportunities to enjoy the outside world because of an uncertainty. An _unlikely_ uncertainty.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Pearl said. “All right then. We’ll go to Lake Verity as planned.”

The three Sinnoh Dex Holders headed towards Lake Verity. As usual, Route 201 was very peaceful. A few people were having a stroll in the nice weather, while a few people were training their Pokémon by battling each other. They were being careful not to cause a ruckus, so the whole route was enjoyable for everyone.

With Pearl in the lead and Diamond talking to Platinum beside her, the two boys were effectively shielding the heiress from possible dangers. Nothing would happen to her, not while they were protecting her.

Several minutes into the stroll, something happened. There was a loud noise coming from the trees ahead, as if something ran into a tree at top speed. The wild Starly and Bidoof all fled from the immediately area, as if startled by whatever happened. The three Sinnoh Dex Holders stopped walking.

“What was that?” Diamond asked as he watched the wild Pokémon flee from the disturbance.

He took a few steps towards it, but Pearl stopped him. “I’ll go check it out.”

Platinum simply stood back and watched Pearl run towards the disturbance. Diamond watched him carefully, in case something weird happened. The heiress paid close attention as well, just in case. It was probably a trainer who missed a Pokémon attack, or at best, a large wild Pokémon.

Suddenly, she felt an arm wrap around her throat from behind. A hand clamped over her mouth to prevent her from screaming, and the arm began to choke her. Platinum tried to call for help, but no sound came out. Her assailant pulled her backwards, forcing her to fall, thereby preventing her from kicking him. The heiress tried desperately to loosen the bind around her neck, but to no avail. She felt her consciousness slipping fast, as the choke had blocked off all circulation to her head. She gasped for air but none came. She tried to call Diamond for help, but only faint choking sounds came from her throat, and they were blocked by the hand that was clamped over her mouth. At this rate, before long, she would pass out (or worse) without Diamond or Pearl ever knowing. So she did the only thing she could do right now. She desperately flailed her legs, kicking at the ground.

Diamond heard the noise being created by Platinum’s boots hitting the ground and turned around, just as the heiress intended. By this time, the heiress was just a couple of seconds away from passing out.

“Lady!” Diamond yelled in horror. He quickly charged over, forcing the assailant to release his grip on Platinum’s neck. Pearl heard his voice and ran over as well.

As the assailant backed off and got up to his feet, Pearl arrived to help protect Platinum while Diamond knelt beside her to check on her condition. The heiress was gasping and coughing for air while keeping her hands around her throat.

“Lady, are you okay?” Diamond asked as he gently pulled her closer to him, effectively holding her in a protective embrace.

Platinum kept coughing but still managed to nod. “Y – Yes… Thank you…” She blinked several times to try to clear her vision and steadily calmed down. With Diamond’s assistance, she slowly rose to her feet and glared at her assailant. Diamond still stood in a protective stance in front of her, not allowing her to get close to danger.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” Pearl demanded angrily.

“Your Mega Ring,” the assailant said to Platinum. “It would save us all a lot of time and effort if you relinquish it right now.”

“S – So you are the one,” the heiress said after another cough. “Professor Rowan had warned me about you. Mega Hunter.”

“You know about me,” the hunter said. “Then you would know you have no options but to relinquish your Mega Ring if you value your health and safety.”

“I will never give in and assist evil,” the heiress said through clenched teeth.

Diamond and Pearl stood in front of the girl, still protecting her from the hunter.

“Lady, please step back,” Diamond said.

“We’ll handle him,” Pearl said as well.

Platinum nodded and took a step backwards. Diamond sent out his Torterra and Bastiodon and Pearl sent out his Infernape and Tauros. The Mega Hunter sent out his four Pokémon as well. His four Pokémon appeared one by one with a distinct sparkle and immediately positioned themselves to fight the two Dex Holders. Platinum eyed the Pokémon from behind her friends.

‘ _A Politoed, Starmie, Kabutops, and Omastar… … All shiny…_ ’ The shiny Politoed pointed at the sky and suddenly, a small raincloud formed over the battlefield and began to pour. The heiress felt the heavy raindrops pounding on top of her as well, and a thought occurred. ‘ _A thematic team. Rain based, which means… The Kabutops and Omastar would have increased speed, and all of their Water type attacks would do greater damage. At the same time, Pearl’s Infernape will not be very effective with its Fire type attacks…_ ’

“Dia! Keep me covered!” Pearl said to his best friend. “Close Combat at the Omastar, and Thrash!” he ordered his Pokémon.

“Razor Leaf at the Politoed and Iron Head at the Kabutops!” Diamond ordered as well.

“Ice Beam,” the Mega Hunter ordered. The purple Omastar suddenly boosted towards the Torterra and shot it at point blank range with Ice Beam, freezing the top half of its body, thereby disabling Razor Leaf completely. “Scald,” he ordered right afterwards. The Politoed shot a stream of boiling hot water at the Bastiodon while the Starmie did the same to Tauros. The Tauros began to thrash around in pain, as the boiling water had burned the front half of its body. The Bastiodon simply braced itself and managed to endure the blast. The Mega Hunter continued giving orders. “Waterfall.”

The light green Kabutops charged forward with unnatural speed and rammed into Pearl’s Infernape before it could get ready for Close Combat. The Infernape managed to withstand the attack, but the Kabutops had rammed its rock hard carapace into its head, which stunned it for a short while.

Platinum watched the close-quarters battle unfold. The Swift Swim of Kabutops and Omastar made them faster than everything else in the battlefield, thus making it much harder for Diamond and Pearl to even land a hit, let alone defeat them entirely. The Scald had damaged Tauros too much, and it was no longer capable of dealing heavy attacks. The heiress clenched her teeth and reached into her bag. There was no way out of this. She had to join in on the battle to help her two friends.

But something sliced her bag’s straps before her hand could reach, causing her bag to fall to the ground. The heiress gasped and spun around and spotted a pink Weavile holding a shard of ice. Platinum glared at it and after a moment’s pause, quickly reached for her bag. The Weavile threw another Ice Shard, forcing her to pull her hand back.

The shiny Weavile jumped forward, trying to snatch the bag away. Platinum pulled her bag back with her foot, and again, tried to reach inside. The Weavile didn’t bother with Ice Shard this time, and went straight for Ice Punch. The heiress quickly pulled her bag up to block the hit.

While the heiress struggled with blocking off the Weavile, she could hear the battle still going on behind her. She couldn’t see, but she could hear her friends struggling badly through the pounding rain.

Suddenly, there was a loud thud behind her and she felt something hit her hard on the back. With a yelp, she fell forward, and felt something fall with her as well. After hitting the ground, the heiress quickly glanced back and saw Diamond on the ground by her legs.

“Diamond!” she cried out in horror. She quickly knelt beside him and checked on his condition, greatly worried for his well being. She quickly looked up to see if Pearl was okay, but she had looked up just in time to see a shiny Garchomp smash the boy off to the side with its tail. Platinum tightened her grip on Diamond, afraid that he might get hurt too. The Mega Hunter still had his previous four Pokémon with him, and returned them since there was no longer a battle. He recalled his Weavile as well, leaving only the shiny Garchomp in the field.

Diamond struggled to sit up just as the Garchomp was stomping over towards him. “Lady,” he said to Platinum. “Get out of here… it’s too dangerous.”

“No,” the heiress said, her voice shaking a little. “I will not leave you.”

The Garchomp roared and stomped on the ground. Diamond saw the attack coming and quickly shoved Platinum away from him. The moment the heiress was out of harm’s way, several big rocks shot out of the ground and hit him from all over. One particular rock from the Stone Edge attack hit Diamond in the ribs, knocking the wind out of him, while the other rocks battered his arms and legs.

“Diamond!” Platinum shrieked out. To her horror, Diamond simply collapsed on to the ground after the attack, and stopped moving entirely.

The Garchomp roared again as it changed its focus to her. Platinum clenched her teeth in anger and prepared to defend herself. The Mega Hunter approached her calmly.

“Relinquish your Mega Ring,” he said.

“Never!” Platinum yelled defiantly. She reached into her bag now that the Weavile had stopped harassing, and sent out her entire team and pressed the activation button on her Mega Ring. Her Lopunny responded and Mega Evolved while the Empoleon and Rapidash prepared themselves.

The Mega Lopunny immediately charged at the Garchomp with High Jump Kick the moment it finished Mega Evolving. The shiny Garchomp smashed it in mid air with its claws however, sending it crashing back down towards the ground. The Garchomp roared and tried to stomp it into the ground. Platinum’s Empoleon shot a Hydro Pump at it, forcing it to back off a little. The Rapidash engulfed itself in flames and charged towards the Garchomp as fast as it could.

The Garchomp snarled and rammed into the oncoming charge. The huge impact forced the Rapidash to stumble backwards a little, giving the Garchomp time to charge forward and stab its claws into the Fire Horse Pokémon’s legs. Having immobilized the Rapidash, the Garchomp began to thrash about, ruthlessly slamming the Rapidash into the ground all over the place.

Platinum gasped in horror. She never saw her Pokémon getting so hurt before, and she couldn’t handle it. She wanted it to end, but couldn’t think of anything. All she could do was watch her beloved Pokémon get brutally thrashed. Her Empoleon tried to stop the pummeling, but it was a futile effort. The Garchomp rapidly sidestepped the Blizzard and stabbed its claws into the Emperor Pokémon’s shoulders now, as it had shifted targets. The Mach Pokémon hammered the Empoleon into the ground before following up with Earthquake to maximize the damage dealt.

The Mega Hunter approached Platinum once more. “Your Mega Ring.”

Platinum promptly struck him across the face with her left hand as hard as she could manage. “How dare you!” The slap knocked off the hunter’s sunglasses and left a bit of a red mark on his face. He simply picked his sunglasses back up while the heiress glared at him while noting his eyes. Blank brown… A black haired trainer wearing a cap, using shiny Pokémon to brutally assault those with Mega capabilities, wearing sunglasses to conceal his blank brown eyes. Worth remembering…

The Garchomp roared again as it finished off the Mega Lopunny that tried to attack from behind. The Mega Hunter put his sunglasses back on. “Your Mega Ring,” he said again calmly.

Platinum tried to hit him with her other hand. But this time, he caught her and roughly yanked her arm to the side, forcing her to fall. While still holding onto her hand, he put his foot on her shoulder and pulled her arm while pushing down with his foot. The heiress screamed as she felt her shoulder was being torn apart. She tried to push the foot off of her, but she couldn’t, as the angle just didn’t work for her.

In the meantime, the hunter had removed her Mega Ring and put it in his pocket. He let go of her arm shortly after, allowing Platinum to keep her arm intact. She writhed on the ground as she felt around her injured shoulder. She could barely feel her hand…

But still, Platinum crawled towards her brutally wounded Pokémon. She had to apologize to them and treat their injuries. Unfortunately, the shiny Garchomp didn’t allow her to get close to them. It stomped the ground in front of her as a warning.

The Mega Hunter took the Mega Stone off of the Lopunny and put it in his pocket and approached Platinum. He yanked her up to her feet by her injured arm, earning a pained yelp from her.

Platinum stumbled a little upon being freed and stopped in front of the Garchomp. The Mach Pokémon snarled and charged straight towards her. The heiress gasped in shock and tried to run, but the Garchomp had rammed its iron-hard head into her chest before she turned, knocking her down to the ground.

The heiress felt all the air escape her lungs as she crashed onto the ground. She curled up into a ball and tried to withstand the Iron Head, but it was too painful. This was the very first time she was ever hit by anything in her entire life. She had been in painful situations before, such as getting caught in a rockslide in Mt. Coronet. But she was never struck like this… And it hurt so much… She couldn’t breathe. No air entered her lungs no matter how hard she tried to breathe in. She could only manage shallow gasps for a short while before she passed out.

The hunter watched the girl pass out before he headed towards his next destination: Hoenn. But he stopped after a few steps. He looked back at Platinum lying unconscious. Money… necessary? … No. Diantha had provided enough… He resumed walking for a while before he sent out his aerial transport Pokémon.

…

Two days later, August 26, Route 101, Hoenn, 12 pm…

…

Once again, Sapphire sparred with her Mega Blaziken. But this time, she was kicked out of _her_ secret base by Ruby. Yes, the base was hers. It was hers to start with, and Ruby was only the guest. But the guest had kicked the owner out, and had become a co-owner. And redesigned the whole base.

Whatever. Sapphire didn’t want to spar indoors anymore anyways. Too… crowded. She needed to spar in the open. And the dolls Ruby bought were kind of… cute, so she didn’t want to damage them. What were they called? Plushies? There was a Mew plushy Ruby had bought in a “special deal” (or so he said), and it was so adorable, Sapphire had to fight Ruby over it. But Ruby held it as a hostage, sort of, demanding that Sapphire sparred outside if she wanted to keep that plushy intact.

Several minutes later, the sparring session ended and the Mega Blaziken reverted to its normal form. Sapphire wiped the sweat off of her forehead and complimented her Pokémon for its skills. She sat down on the grass to rest and relax. The weather was so nice…

She heard someone coming closer. From behind. Sapphire glanced back and saw Ruby coming closer with a disappointed look in his eyes.

“Hey Ruby,” she called with a wave.

“… Sapphire,” Ruby said with a sigh. “… I just washed those clothes. What are you doing, sitting on the dirty ground like that?”

Sapphire rolled her eyes. “I’m sitting on _grass_ , genius. And besides, you wash my clothes every day. How many copies do you have, anyways?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ruby said as he crossed his arms.

“I think you do. You wash a set of clothes every day, yet you and I always have the same clothes on. What does that mean? When you wash my clothes, you give me an identical set for me to wear for the day. Don’t lie, Ruby. I’ve seen your wardrobe and its stock of identical sets.”

Ruby blinked. “…”

“See? You suck at designing so much, that you just duplicate the same style over and over!”

“How dare you!” Ruby yelled.

Sapphire’s Blaziken rolled its eyes. Not this again… As its trainer argued with Ruby, the Blaziken simply glanced around the nice route. But something caught its attention. Something fast…

The Blaziken quickly jumped up to its feet and blocked an Ice Shard heading straight for Ruby. Sapphire hopped up to her feet and prepared for battle. Ruby realized what just happened and prepared as well.

Sapphire spotted a trainer walking towards her, with a pink Weavile walking beside him. That Weavile was the one that threw the Ice Shard. But… why?

The enemy trainer soon came close and stood in front of the two Hoenn Dex Holders. He glanced at their wrists and spotted their Mega Bracelets.

“Your Mega Bracelets,” he said as he returned his Weavile. “Relinquish them. Or prepare to be crushed.”

Sapphire glared at him for a second. “Just try and take it!”

She nudged Ruby, and he sent out his Swampert. At the same time, the two Hoenn Dex Holders pressed the activation button on their Mega Bracelets, enabling their Pokémon to undergo the Mega Evolution process.

The enemy trainer sent out two Pokémon. With a distinct sparkle, two Pokémon materialized and revealed themselves as a Gardevoir and a Gallade, both colored blue and slightly pinkish white. The Gardevoir’s eyes immediately twinkled as it stared at the Mega Blaziken.

“Blaze Kick!” Sapphire ordered.

“Muddy Water!” Ruby ordered right after.

The Mega Blaziken charged forward with its feet flaming. But surprisingly, the Gardevoir was too fast, and it kept dodging the hits. As the Mega Blaziken got faster and faster, the Gardevoir did as well.

Sapphire clenched her teeth as she realized what happened. Gardevoir’s Trace had copied Speed Boost.

At the same time, Ruby’s Mega Swampert unleashed a blast of Muddy Water at the shiny Gallade. But when the attack hit, Ruby could see that the Gallade was completely unharmed due to Protect. The Gallade dissipated its Protect and charged forward while extending its dual elbow blades.

Ruby’s Mega Swampert began throwing clumps of mud at it, trying to prevent it from coming any closer. The Mud Bombs forced the Gallade to slice the incoming projectiles, thus delaying its Leaf Blade charge.

“Sapphire!” Ruby yelled out all of a sudden.

“Got it!” Sapphire yelled back. “Chaka, jump!”

The Mega Blaziken did as told and leapt high into the air for a High Jump Kick. The moment it jumped up, Ruby’s Mega Swampert began shaking the ground furiously for an Earthquake. But unfortunately, the shiny Gardevoir’s newly found speed wasn’t accounted for. Before the shockwaves from the Earthquakes became strong enough, the shiny Gardevoir hit the Mega Swampert with Energy Ball, thus forcing it to abort its attack. The Mega Swampert took a few steps backwards from the sudden powerful hit, and in that time, the shiny Gallade charged forward once more with Leaf Blade.

As the Leaf Blade repeatedly struck the Mega Swampert, Sapphire’s Mega Blaziken was on its way down from its jump, transitioning into a High Jump Kick. The shiny Gardevoir caught it with Psychic and quickly altered its trajectory, aiming the High Jump Kick at the Mega Swampert.

The Mega Blaziken tried to alter its course once it was released from Psychic, but couldn’t do it in time. The shiny Gallade leapt out of the way and the two Mega Pokémon collided into each other. The Gallade immediately charged forward the moment it landed, striking the two Mega Pokémon with Psycho Cut from both its elbows.

“Your Mega Bracelet,” the enemy trainer said coldly. “Relinquish them.”

“We’re not done yet!” Sapphire yelled. She immediately sent out her entire remaining team and prepared to charge at the enemy with them.

Ruby sent out his remaining team as well. The enemy trainer returned his two Psychic types and sent out multiple Pokémon at once to fight the two Hoenn Dex Holders’ remaining Pokémon.

The first Pokémon to appear with a sparkle was Garchomp. It was followed by Tyranitar, Metagross, Dragonite, Haxorus, Hydreigon, and… Sapphire gasped in horror. Salamence… Ruby saw her reactions and quickly held her hand.

“Sapphire, stay focused,” he said as he squeezed her hand a little.

Sapphire blinked a few times and clenched her teeth. “Th – Thanks…” She took a quick breath to prepare herself. “All right. Let’s do this, then!”

Sapphire’s Aggron charged first, aiming Head Smash directly at the light green Salamence. The two Dex Holders’ other Pokémon followed, each aiming at a specific Pokémon.

But before the Aggron got close, something erupted from below its feet, sending it flying upwards. The enemy’s shiny Hydreigon roared as its Earth Power was successful. The Aggron crashed back down, but took a long while to get back up. Ruby’s Delcatty leapt towards the Hydreigon while his Mightyena charged closer to the ground. But the two Pokémon were hit by Hydreigon’s Dragon Pulse at once, as the Brutal Pokémon was using all three of its heads to fire Dragon Pulse into different directions.

In the meantime, the enemy trainer’s other Pokémon were preparing themselves. The Garchomp had extended its claws as it swung them repeatedly. It was using Swords Dance, while the other Pokémon were using Dragon Dance or Agility.

Having finished preparing, the Garchomp charged forward with a loud roar. Salamence followed, but rapidly sped past it as it charged straight towards Sapphire.

The girl gasped as her childhood nightmares started to return. She tried to get her Donphan to block its charge, but the initial Outrage sent the Donphan flying backwards. Sapphire’s Tropius attacked the Salamence from up top, but was quickly chased down by the Dragon Pokémon.

Ruby’s Delcatty and Mightyena shook off the effects of the Dragon Pulse and tried to help out Sapphire. But the enemy trainer’s silver Metagross had stepped in between them, stopping their efforts short. The Delcatty rammed into it with Iron Tail, but did nothing. The Mightyena tried a Hyper Beam, but also did nothing. The silver Metagross hammered the Delcatty down with one of its massive arms and punched the Mightyena with its other arm with the strength of a meteorite.

Ruby carefully observed the battle. It was strictly one sided. The enemy Pokémon had received too many boosts while the Hydreigon had protected the team. And that Salamence was getting stronger and stronger as it attacked. Each Pokémon it defeated increased its power thanks to Moxie. So sending out everyone against it was a terrible idea. But everyone _was_ out right now, getting crushed by Outrage!

What to do… Blast Burn and Hydro Cannon weren’t options. The Swampert and Blaziken couldn’t fight anymore. And even if they could, against a primarily Dragon typed team, the moves wouldn’t do much. Especially considering the huge power gap.

Fighting wasn’t an option. Defending wasn’t viable anymore since the enemy team boosted themselves. Ruby gritted his teeth. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t defend. Meaning, he had to retreat. Either that, or he surrendered or died. Simple rules of battles. Fight if possible, if not possible then defend, if unable to defend then retreat, if unable to retreat then surrender, if unable to surrender then die.

But how could he retreat? The enemy will chase him. He needed the enemy to be distracted. If only someone could help fight this guy…

The shiny Salamence roared as it charged straight towards Sapphire once more. The girl’s Aggron blocked the approach but was knocked away very quickly. The Dragon Pokémon aimed at Sapphire’s head as it swung its claw. Sapphire blinked. She was reliving her childhood nightmares. The Salamence that had struck Ruby with Dragon Claw. All that… blood. And pain. Misery knowing that she was too weak and caused him to be hurt like that…

Ruby quickly pulled Sapphire out of harm’s way. The girl had gone almost limp from seeing the Salamence so close. Damn it, Sapphire couldn’t handle Salamence. She could fight everything else to the best of her abilities, but against Salamence, she just froze up.

Ruby simply held her in place while his Pokémon were getting thrashed. … Retreating wasn’t an option… He calmly considered the possibilities. He could fight on. Within a minute however, the enemy would defeat both Hoenn Dex Holders. And then what? Attack them directly. Alternatively, he could save his Pokémon and Sapphire’s from more harm by relinquishing the Mega Bracelets. That way, they could escape unscathed and prepare for revenge.

The enemy’s Dragonite finished pummeling Ruby’s Milotic with Outrage. Ruby clenched his teeth and made his decision. He took off his Mega Bracelet and took off Sapphire’s as well. With a slight growl, he tossed the two Mega Bracelets to the enemy trainer. The moment the trainer caught the two items, he called his Pokémon back. While surrounded by his Pokémon, he walked over towards the fallen Blaziken and Swampert and removed their Mega Stones. Afterwards, he returned every Pokémon except Salamence and hopped on to the bright green Dragon to fly away.

Once the Salamence was quite far away, Sapphire blinked a few times and steadily recovered from the childhood trauma. She looked down at her wrist. No Mega Bracelet. She looked at the battlefield, where her Pokémon were all scattered with terrible injuries, along with Ruby’s Pokémon of similar conditions.

“Feeling okay?” came Ruby’s voice from her side.

Sapphire then realized that she was being held up by Ruby and quickly pushed off. “… Yeah…”

“Good,” Ruby muttered quietly. He slowly walked over to his injured Pokémon and knelt beside them.

“… I’m sorry,” Sapphire said as she looked away from Ruby. “I just… …”

“It’s all right,” Ruby said with a sigh. “There was nothing you could’ve done even if you were able to fight. Actually, if you were able, we’d be in worse shape than right now.”

“How so?”

“You’d never surrender,” Ruby said as he returned his Pokémon. “You’d fight even if you knew the end result. If we continued fighting, the enemy would’ve killed or crippled us.” He rose to his feet and crossed his arms. “But it doesn’t mean I’m proud to have surrendered…”

Sapphire returned her Pokémon and looked at them. They were all suffering from the injuries sustained… it was unbearable. Sapphire closed her eyes and put her Pokéballs away. “… What do we do now?”

“We go to your dad’s lab to get our Pokémon healed as much as possible, then we’re going to Kanto,” Ruby said. “The enemy only wanted our Mega Bracelets. But he wanted both. That means, there’s a chance that he’d want more. And there’s only one other person I know that has a Mega Bracelet.”

“… Emerald.”

“And with Emerald, we can get Crystal to help us, along with the rest of our seniors. And with their help, we can become stronger and we may be able to retake our Mega Bracelets. It’s worth a shot.”

…

Meanwhile…

…

The Mega Hunter kept flying on his Salamence. 6 Mega Evolution items were collected. Would that be enough? … Yes. It was. No more items were required. Enough Mega Stones have been collected. No more were required as well. It was time to start the next phase.

But first, he had to return to Kalos. A certain Dex Holder was spotted in Kalos, and her assistance would be invaluable…


	6. Choosing Sides

Chapter 6: Choosing Sides

August 24, Sandgem Town, Sinnoh, 12 pm…

X and Y exited Prof. Rowan’s lab. Thanks to a speed boat, the two Kalos Dex Holders were able to get to Sinnoh in just over a day. And after a night in Canalave hotel, they took _public transportation_ (for the first time ever) to get to Sandgem quickly. The ride was certainly odd, as it was the very first time where the two Dex Holders were in sight of so many random people without being recognized.

And now, they managed to convince Prof. Rowan to reveal the location of the Mega Ring owner of this region. It was easy, since all the professor had to do was contact Prof. Sycamore and ask who the two were.

Apparently, the owner of the Mega Ring had gone towards Lake Verity. A brief consultation of the map told the two Dex Holders the general location, thus giving them their next destination.

The two Dex Holders quickly walked towards the famous lake. They hoped to reach the Mega Ring owner before the Mega Hunter. If not… at least it would make convincing much easier.

Y stopped in her tracks as she focused ahead. There were three people lying on the ground. … Was the Mega Hunter here already? She quickly ran towards them. X saw the three as well and ran with her.

Y knelt beside the black haired boy while X crouched beside the blonde haired boy. There was a dark haired girl lying not too far away as well.

“Hey, are you okay?” Y asked as she shook the boy in front of her. “Wake up!”

The boy slowly regained his consciousness after repeated shakes. He slowly sat up and put a hand to his stomach. “Ugh…”

X was successful in his attempts as well, as the blonde haired boy had woken up. Y took a glance at him before looking at the boy in front of her again.

“Take it easy. What happened?”

The boy blinked a few times as he recalled what happened. He suddenly gasped. “Lady!” He frantically looked around him and upon spotting the unconscious girl, he gasped again and quickly crawled towards her. “Lady!”

The blonde boy heard his cries and quickly ran towards the girl as well, leaving X and Y to themselves. The two Kalos Dex Holders moved towards the group to see if they could be of any help.

“Lady, can you hear me?” the black haired boy asked as he gently pulled the unconscious girl into his arms.

“Damn it, that guy took Miss Lady’s Mega Ring,” the blonde haired boy said.

“Mega Ring?” Y asked in surprise.

“Damn, we got here too late,” X said rather angrily.

The dark haired girl started to gasp and cough as she steadily regained consciousness. The black haired boy was ecstatic to see her wake up, but still looked very worried.

“Lady? Are you okay?”

The girl coughed violently and trembled in his embrace, but soon calmed down. She managed a faint nod.

The blonde haired boy turned his attention to X and Y. The two Kalos Dex Holders met his eyes and tried their best to show that they were trying to help.

“Who are you two?” the dark haired girl asked as she saw them as well.

“My name is Y, and he is X,” Y started. “We also ran into a really powerful trainer who stole our Mega Ring and Mega Stone, and we were worried that other trainers with Mega Rings may be targeted as well. But it seems that we were too late to help you.”

“Yes… he attacked us,” the dark haired girl said with a pained grunt. “He took my Mega Ring…”

“What do we do now?” the blonde haired boy asked.

“Lady, are you sure you’re okay?” the black haired boy asked. “Maybe you should rest up at home.”

“No. I must get my Mega Ring back,” the girl said as she slowly rose to her feet. She grunted in discomfort but managed to stand on her own will. “He must pay for what he did.”

“We’ll need more help,” Y said from the side. “That guy destroyed us easily. And by the looks of things, he overpowered you three as well. The five of us won’t be enough.”

The dark haired girl appeared to be in deep thought. She soon slowly nodded and looked at the four around her.

“Professor Rowan had warned me that something like this may happen. I did not heed his warning, as I did not want to lose opportunities on spending time with my friends due to an uncertainty. But now that the uncertainty had occurred, I will follow his follow-up advice.” She looked over at X and Y. “You two must be from the region of Kalos. Kalos Dex Holders.”

The two boys around her seemed a little surprised, and X and Y were confused as to how this girl knew of their identities.

“Professor Rowan told me about the Mega Hunter in Kalos,” the dark haired girl explained. “He said that there were two people on the way from Kalos to help me in case the Mega Hunter came for me as well, and that the two people would be Kalos Dex Holders.” She gave them a formal bow. “I am pleased to meet you. I am Platinum Berlitz, and these are my friends, Diamond and Pearl. We are Sinnoh Dex Holders.”

X and Y quickly bowed in response to their seniors.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Y said. “Um… I heard Diamond call you as “Lady”. Why is that?”

“She’s the daughter of the prestigious Berlitz family,” Diamond explained. “So she prefers being addressed as Lady Berlitz.”

“For strangers, yes,” Platinum said. “But you two may address me however you wish.”

“Okay then. Miss Platinum.”

The heiress nodded. “If you wish.”

“So Miss Lady, what are we going to do?” Pearl asked.

“Professor Rowan told me that if I get attacked and I feel that the enemy is too powerful, I should go over to the region of Kanto to seek aid from the other Dex Holders,” Platinum said. “So that is what she should do now. Go to Kanto and request assistance.”

…

August 26, Littleroot Town, Hoenn, 1 pm…

…

“Everything all set?” Sapphire asked as she peeked inside Ruby’s room from outside the open window.

“Almost,” Ruby replied as he continued to pack his stuff.

“Papa said he was done with his research on Ruru and Kiruru, so they’re back with us,” Sapphire said. “So the next time we meet that guy, we’ll at least have an even footing against his Gardevoir and Gallade.”

Sapphire took a Pokéball out of her bag and tossed it to him. The boy caught it and saw his Gardevoir inside. For a while, he simply stood staring at his Pokémon, wondering if there was ever another trainer who missed out on their Pokémon’s both evolutions. It wasn’t his fault, but still. Ruru evolved into Kirlia under Wally, and into Gardevoir under Sapphire (and Emerald). Hmm… he might have to apologize and treat it better from now on…

“Just put your glasses on,” Sapphire said from the windows, misunderstanding the reason for him just standing there.

“I told you before, it ruins my style,” Ruby said as he put his Gardevoir away.

“You look really good with it on,” Sapphire said again. She suddenly narrowed her eyes to slits. “The _other_ girls certainly seem to think so too. Ever wonder why all the female participants in your Contests squeal and hug you in front of the cameras?”

Ruby awkwardly cleared his throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re such a jerk,” the girl said with a sigh. “Well? Come on. Hurry up and pack so we can get to Kanto already.”

Sapphire didn’t wait for his response and let go of the windowsill so that she’d freefall onto the ground. Upon landing on the ground, she sent out her Gallade so that she could explain what happened earlier and what needed to happen. The Gallade nodded to show its determination.

Before too long, Ruby came outside, so Sapphire returned her Gallade and sent out her Tropius. With it, the two Dex Holders headed towards Lilycove City.

Ruby and Sapphire arrived in Lilycove City an hour later. The two Dex Holders could have gone to Slateport City, but the Slateport harbor usually only had ferries going to places within Hoenn only. Lilycove harbor had ferries for other regions all the time, so it was the suitable choice.

As they were heading towards the harbor, they passed by the Contest Hall. It sounded as if a Contest had just recently ended, as tons of people were flooding out of the building.

Some of the participants spotted Ruby running by and some of the girls there decided to run after him.

“Oh, Ruby!” one of them yelled. “Can you please give us some pointers?”

Ruby stopped running and Sapphire did as well after a sigh. And immediately, a handful of girls managed to surround Ruby. Sapphire clenched her teeth and growled as she watched the girls all squealing as they surrounded Ruby, asking all sorts of Contest questions.

Ruby looked like he was… enjoying himself a little. Enjoying his popularity. Sapphire saw his expression and she felt… anger. Rage at being betrayed, perhaps. But at the same time, she felt quite sad, thinking that she wasn’t good enough for him, or that she just wasn’t catching his eyes.

Sapphire sighed and waited for everyone to leave. One by one, the other girls left. But one… stayed behind. This last girl hadn’t actually said anything yet, but she still looked so excited to see Ruby.

“You’re Ruby, right?” the girl asked excitedly.

Sapphire looked at this girl. She had really long brown hair tied into a big ponytail. She had bright blue eyes too. And she was wearing a white sleeveless shirt with a black vest and really short jeans.

“That’s me,” Ruby said with a smile.

“I’m so excited to finally meet you,” the girl said. “I came all the way from Unova to learn about Contests. I can’t wait to learn some professional tips.”

“Unova, huh?” Ruby said. “That’s far away. My reputation reached that far?”

“Sort of,” the girl said. “But I do have many… sources.”

“So, what’s your name?” Ruby asked.

“Oh, sorry,” the girl said. “My name is White, and I’m the president of the BW Agency, and the event planner of Pokéstar Studios. But the reason I’m here is so that I can get Pokémon Musical ideas from your Contest tips and in return, I can offer you a chance to become famous in Unova.”

…

August 26, Lumiose City, Kalos, 5 pm…

…

Blue checked the Kalos regional map. So far, she toured… just about every city on the western half of the region. She had spent about a week in Kalos so far, and she was loving it. The good sights, the service, the kindness of the people… she really liked it here. But she was rather sad that she was all alone. She had wanted to tour around and visit new places with her friends.

Blue shook her head. She focused on the map again. Today, she’d finish touring Lumoise City. Then tomorrow, she’d head towards Laverre City and start touring the eastern half of Kalos. She folded the map and put it in her bag. Time to continue touring. Once she finished touring all of Kalos, she’d be able to determine which city she’d like to live in. So far, she liked Shalour City. But maybe there was another city that she liked even more.

Blue packed her belongings and left the Pokémon Center. Time to tour the largest city of Kalos, part 3!

There were lots of places to see. The famous Restaurant LeWow (not that she’d be able to eat there), the Lumiose Boutique (again, not that she’d be able to buy anything), the museum, Stone Emporium… lots of places.

But before long, she felt… strange. As if someone was watching her movements. While walking down the packed streets of Lumiose City, she took a quick glance backwards. She saw a guy roughly 50 meters away staring at her with a blank look. He wasn’t walking. He was simply standing perfectly still, watching her amidst the crowd.

Blue took a few more steps before she turned completely to face his direction. Surprisingly, he was gone. There were no creepy guys rooted to the ground staring at her direction. Blue shook her head and resumed touring. That guy was probably just her imagination.

For several hours, she toured around the famous city, exploring various landmarks. She spent a lot of time in the museum, staring at various artworks. Lately, she had been getting into art, so these types of work interested her. She suddenly felt a little sad as she recalled why she was getting into art. … But now wasn’t the time to think of such things.

Blue walked upstairs and found more artworks. She examined each one carefully until one work simply made her freeze. An artwork depicting friendship… Three Pokémon were in the focus, all looking perfectly happy together. Happy to be with each other. Blue imagined substituting herself for one of the three Pokémon while Red and Green substituted the other two. But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t picture it. Perhaps the artist never gave this much thought, but there was a lone Pokémon flying in the distant sky. It was obviously intended to be the normal background. But Blue substituted herself in for that lone Pokémon while Red, Green, and Yellow were substituted for the three Pokémon. … Now that didn’t take any amount of time to picture.

Blue let out a long sigh. She felt so lonely. She thought she’d be used to it by now, but no. She missed her friends and wanted to see them, even if they wouldn’t miss her. … Red had tried to call her for the past few days now. She didn’t pick up, as she didn’t want to know how much she had hurt her friend by simply leaving her old life. But as expected, Green hadn’t tried to call her yet. Maybe it was because he knew that she wouldn’t answer. Given his personality, he wouldn’t try something that he felt had no chance of succeeding. But… just proving that he thought about her from time to time would mean the world to her…

Blue shook her head. She didn’t know why she was thinking this now. Or rather, why she was feeling so lonely now, when she had been lonely since forever.

Suddenly, she felt something watching her yet again. She glanced backwards and spotted a guy looking at her. This time, she spun around to see him and… noticed that it was just an artwork. A picture of a man standing alone. Titled “Loneliness”… go figure.

Blue soon left the museum and headed towards Route 14. It was starting to get late, so she was going to find a suitable place to camp. Somewhere off of the main road, preferably in a forest. She soon found the ideal location and sent out her Ditto. The Ditto promptly Transformed into a tent, not too big, but big enough for one person. Blue petted it as a thank you and climbed inside. Though it was warm enough as is, she still got her Ditto to extend a part of itself to create a cozy little sleeping bag.

She wasn’t going to sleep quite yet, however. She took out her sketchbook and simply began to draw something. Anything. Whatever came to mind. It was her hobby now, apart from berry growing. To drift away from the pains of her life, she diverted all of her attention into her hobbies during idle hours. When at home, she would tend her berry plants before mindlessly drawing stuff. When on the move, she would just draw things.

Pryce was the one who suggested in drawing. The man made ice sculptures to escape a variety of thoughts. Upon Blue’s visit, he suggested that she take up drawing. It was a good advice, since Blue was able to escape thinking about her life most of the time.

Blue snapped awake when her Pokégear vibrated. She glanced at her sketchbook to see what she was randomly drawing before looking at her Pokégear.

Red was calling her again. If he was calling this much, then he must’ve seen the secret message she had sent Green. But that meant that someone was acute enough to detect her secret message and reveal it. … Most likely Crystal or Yellow. There was no way Red would know about it, and Green likely wouldn’t have cared. So if Red was calling her this much then he must be extremely worried.

Blue groaned. She didn’t want to keep ignoring Red like this. He was her first friend, and probably her only true one. But she didn’t want to get anywhere near Green anymore. And with Red, there was always that risk.

Blue glanced at her sketchbook once more. She had apparently drawn a person without thinking about it. And Blue could tell that she had unconsciously drawn Peter. She still hadn’t given him a call yet. Maybe she should. She looked at her Pokégear once more. Should she answer Red’s call, or just call Peter instead? Pryce had told her to never abandon her friends, but…

If the choice was just between picking Red or Peter, Blue would definitely pick Red. But when Green got involved, her mind moved towards Peter. She didn’t hate Green. She still loved him. But she didn’t want to be near him because he wouldn’t want her near.

Blue let out a long sigh and made her decision. She rejected Red’s call and called Peter.

‘ _I’m really sorry, Red. But as of now, I… don’t know you._ ’

Of course, thanks to the Ditto-tent, Blue had no way of knowing that she was being watched from afar by a pair of blank unblinking eyes.


	7. Rendezvous

Chapter 7: Rendezvous

August 26, Lilycove City, Hoenn, 2 pm…

Black remained seated on a bench near the city’s Pokémon Center. He didn’t know _why_ though. He came to this region with White so that the girl could pursue a _huge_ business opportunity, and he technically followed her because he felt that he still owed her a lot. After all, she did recently save him from a Light Stone related incident.

White didn’t explain too clearly on what she did to save him. But based on all sorts of clues and eye witness accounts, Black was able to piece together a general understanding of what happened. Apparently White latched onto the Light Stone the moment he was sucked in, thus she was dragged to where the Light Stone would’ve flown off to for its rest (eye witness account). And apparently White had smashed her fists into the stone for several hours straight to get Reshiram to revert back thus saving Black (from clues, namely White’s bruised fists).

Though White had never mentioned the incident ever again, Black didn’t want to be insensitive and forget that it ever happened. He still owed her something, as he always did. Maybe that was his destiny. He’d always owe her something.

So now, here he was, in the region of Hoenn. Waiting for White to return. She was with him until recently. Then she heard the Master Rank Contest finishing and ran towards the Contest Hall. But for some reason, she forced him to stay where he was. He tried to follow anyways, but she _really_ forced him to stay. He didn’t know why, but whatever.

Black took out his Pokédex and mindlessly scrolled down the various Pokémon data recorded. There was nothing to do until White returned. She told him to stay where he was, so he will. He’d just waste time here for hours and hours until-

Black jumped in surprise when his Xtransceiver beeped. He pressed the button to receive and he saw White’s excited face on the screen.

“Black! Come to me! Quickly!”

“Huh?”

“I found him, Black! I found the one we were looking for!”

Black shrugged. “Okay. I’m coming.”

White soon hung up and faced Ruby. “You don’t know how much I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

Ruby chuckled. “I get that a lot.”

The girl beside him rolled her eyes. “Look… we’re kind of in a hurry. Can we speed this fan meeting up?”

White looked over at her. She examined her for a short second before she smiled. “I know who you are.”

“You do?” the girl asked.

“Yes. You’re Sapphire, no?” White glanced back and forth between Ruby and Sapphire. “Of course, I heard a lot about you two. Ruby and Sapphire. Hoenn Dex Holders.”

Sapphire blinked a few times. “… How do you know me? If you’re one of those prissy Contest focused people, fine. You’ll know this sissy pretty well. But how do you know me?”

“As I said before, I do have lots of sources,” White said with a smile. “And once I heard that you two were Dex Holders as well, I just had to find you.”

Ruby and Sapphire glanced at each other before focusing on White again. The Unova Dex Holder took out her Pokédex from her bag and after showing it clearly to her two seniors, she gave them a polite bow.

“I’m one half of the Unova Dex Holders,” she said. “And you two are my seniors!”

Ruby grinned and shook her hand. “It’s great to _finally_ see a Dex Holder interested in the beauty of Pokémon!”

Sapphire sighed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, joy. We have another sissy Dex Holder… … That other guy you called. Black, was it? Is he a Dex Holder?”

“Yes. He’s the other half of the Unova Dex Holders,” White answered.

“And is he…” Sapphire muttered, thinking of a way to describe a sissy without using the word sissy.

“No, no. He’s a battle maniac.”

Ruby rolled his eyes. “Great. Another one.”

Sapphire clapped her hands. “Now _that’s_ a real Dex Holder!”

“How rude of you to say that, implicating that both me and White here are not true Dex Holders,” Ruby commented.

“Shut it, you sissy. Who was it that _surrendered_ our Mega Bracelets to the enemy? A _real_ Dex Holder never surrenders! Like Gold!”

Ruby glared at her. “And who was it that did all the fighting? That’s right. It was _me_.”

Sapphire growled as she glared at Ruby. “Hey! That’s not my fault! You know that I can’t do anything against a Salamence! And that Salamence was on _my_ side of the battle! Why didn’t you help me?!”

“I was busy with everything else that was destroying us!” Ruby yelled. “Maybe you should’ve focused on something other than that Salamence!”

The two Hoenn Dex Holders argued with each other for a while before they realized that White was still there. The two immediately stopped bickering and backed off with an awkward cough.

“… So… you said you were in a hurry?” White asked in an effort to ease the awkwardness.

Sapphire nodded. “We’re on our way to Kanto. A few big things happened and we… need help. We were thinking that our senior Dex Holders would be able to help out.”

“Hey, you should come with us,” Ruby said. “You’d want to meet the others too, right?”

“That would be great,” White said. “Meeting all the other Dex Holders at once sounds spectacular.”

“Great. As soon as your friend arrives, we’ll head to Kanto together. And on the way, we can learn more about each other.”

…

August 27, Laverre City, Kalos, 10 am…

…

Blue stared through the windows of the café while sitting at her table. It was raining pretty hard outside. According to the weather news, this sort of rainfall was actually quite standard. Such a shame. Laverre City looked quite beautiful. But this frequent rainfall was quite a downer. Blue took a sip of her iced tea and opened up the map of Kalos. Laverre City wasn’t going to be her future home. Maybe Lumiose would be her future home. Though that city was a bit too… big and crowded at times. Perhaps a simpler town. Vaniville? That town looked         rather small and cozy on the map. She hadn’t been there yet, but maybe a visit in the near future would help her make her mind.

She was going to start touring the eastern half of Kalos today. But first, she wanted some… company. So she had called Peter, and he told her to meet him in Laverre City. So here she was, waiting for him to arrive.

When she called him last night, he said that he was on his way to Kalos. This guy was all over the regions… why? He didn’t look or feel like a businessman. But she found him in the Sevii Islands and said that he was going back to Kalos. Now that she was in Kalos, he was in another region, returning once more. No one willingly goes back and forth between regions like this. What was he doing? Blue shook her head. It was none of her business, that’s for sure. He probably had his reasons.

Blue looked over at the television on the wall of the café. There was a news update about some arson incident in Vaniville Town. A deliberate incineration of someone’s home. Apparently the home of a junior tournament winner named X, a renowned trainer famous for receiving a Mega Ring at a young age.

“Mega Ring,” Blue muttered. “… Peter wanted one of those. And wanted to know how to use Mega Evolution…”

She frowned as she listened to the story a bit more. There was an alert to all trainers capable of using Mega Evolution. A Gym Leader with the capability was missing for about a month now. The region’s champion, also capable of Mega Evolution, was missing as well. And with X’s house burning down, trainers capable of Mega Evolution were being warned to keep themselves safe. This was not a coincidence. … Was Peter involved in this somehow? Is that why he was in and out of Kalos so much? Hunting Mega Evolution trainers? Hmm… A possibility, albeit unlikely.

Were there other trainers out there with Mega Evolution? … She had no idea, especially considering how she didn’t even know about its existence until recently. How many Pokémon could Mega Evolve anyways? Were the other Dex Holders at risk? Blue knew that Dex Holders tend to have all sorts of _special_ Pokémon stuff. Gym Leader, Pokémon League winner, Legendary Pokémon encounters and captures, among others. There were bound to be Dex Holders capable of Mega Evolution. Of course, there was no way she’d know, since no one bothered to talk to her. Green probably knew. Or Crystal. Actually, she would not be surprised if _every_ Dex Holder could Mega Evolve, except her because she was left out.

Once she met Peter again, she was going to ask him if he knew what Pokémon could Mega Evolve. Then she would ask him a few questions to see if he was somehow related these incidents. Nothing direct, of course.

An hour later, as Blue continued staring at the map, she heard a familiar voice from nearby.

“Hi, Blue. Did you wait long for me?”

The girl looked up from her map and saw Peter sitting on the chair at her table.

“Hey, nice to see you again,” Blue said with a smile.

“How do you like Kalos so far?” he asked with a smile of his own.

“Oh, this region is so nice,” the girl answered. “I love it here. I haven’t toured everywhere yet though. I’m thinking of going to Couriway Town next. Or try to get there next.”

“It’s a beautiful town,” Peter said. “It’s worth exploring. There are beautiful waterfalls all over the place too.”

Blue examined the map again. “Well, I do love scenery…” ‘ _It’s now or never._ ’ “Oh, by the way, did you learn how to use Mega Evolution yet?”

Peter shook his head. “Sadly, no. Not yet, anyways.”

“What Pokémon can Mega Evolve anyways? I haven’t seen one yet.”

“Oh, a lot of Pokémon are able,” Peter said. “Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Sceptile, Blaziken, Swampert, Scizor, Salamence, Garchomp… the list goes on and on.”

‘ _Venusaur and Charizard?_ ’ Blue thought to herself. ‘ _… There’s no way that Green wouldn’t know about this. And Blastoise too? Then I wasn’t informed? … That’s quite probable. Either Green doesn’t know about this and neither do the other Dex Holders, or they do know and simply refused to tell me._ ’ She suddenly felt so… sad. And upset. ‘ _… If they don’t trust me and keep important information from me, should I even consider them to be friends? Should I even treat them as allies?_ ’

“Is something wrong?” Peter asked. “You suddenly look a little sad.”

“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing,” Blue said rather quietly. “It’s just… memories, I guess.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked again. “If you need any help…”

“No, I’m okay,” Blue said with a short sigh. “Thanks for the concern, though.”

The two talked for a long while, with Blue explaining what she liked about Kalos and asking Peter about the other regions and what they were like. Though Blue’s intentions at first were to see if this guy was really behind the Mega Evolution incident, they steadily changed. Instead, she sincerely hoped that he was _not_ behind it. She wanted to have at least one true friend. Just one. And she believed that it would be Peter. If he was evil or something and was behind the Mega Evolution incident, she really wouldn’t know what to do or who to trust.

At least Peter didn’t give her reasons to doubt. He was kind and very nice to her. He was very friendly to her, which was more than she could say about some of the other Dex Holders. Maybe it really was time to let go of the other Dex Holders. She did tell herself this for a long while now…

“Listen,” Blue started abruptly after finishing a short story. “… Thanks for keeping me company. It means a lot to me.”

“No problem,” Peter said. “Any time you need company…”

Blue smiled. “I’ll give you a call.”

“So, we’re friends now?”

“Of course,” Blue said. “I think you’re really trustworthy.”

“Enough to call me a friend, I see?”

Blue smiled again. “… Yes.”

Peter clapped his hands once. “Good! I think we’re going to be good friends.” He reached into his pocket and took out his Pokégear. “It looks like I should get going now,” he said as he slowly got back to his feet.

“Where are you going?” Blue asked. “Are you still looking for the Mega Evolution Guru?”

“Not exactly. But I have a business to attend to in Kanto. Want to come with me?”

Blue lightly shook her head. “I don’t want to go back there. I think I’ll wander around Kalos a bit more. I really like this region. But hey, why are you going back to Kanto? You _just_ got back to Kalos. Why are you leaving already?”

Peter shrugged. “I’m a traveler.”

“Of course.” Blue gave him a friendly wave. “I’ll see you when you return, I suppose.”

Peter waved back. “Yes, of course.”

Once Peter left, Blue crossed her arms and thought. She doubted that Peter was the one behind the Mega Evolution trainer incidents. It was still possible, but highly unlikely. But there was someone attacking everyone with Mega Evolution capabilities, and it was most certainly likely that someone of the Dex Holders were capable. … Should she warn them? Should she send a warning to the other Dex Holders about this?

Blue really didn’t want to. If she gave the warning, her feelings would get stomped one way or the other. Either the Dex Holders heeded her warning, which meant that there really _were_ Dex Holders capable of Mega Evolving, in which case, Blue would feel quite upset and insulted that she wasn’t told. Or, the other Dex Holders would have no idea what she was talking about, in which case she would’ve revealed to them that she was suspecting them of withholding information from her, which would then reveal her insecurity about her friends. That would make her feel much worse, as she would’ve basically told them that they weren’t treating her well enough. Both possible results were unwanted. As such, Blue would not warn them about this. This was not her problem.

…

Meanwhile

…

Peter rode his Salamence as he headed straight towards Couriway Town. He had to pick something up first. Something important and recently completed.

Upon arriving at the city, he followed the river and the waterfalls until he arrived at a really wide and tall waterfall. The shiny Salamence let out a roar at the waterfall, using Hyper Voice to part the waters for a split second. The Salamence then quickly flew into the created gap, allowing Peter to enter the secret cave, and thereby the secret research station constructed recently.

Inside, lots of scientists were mindlessly trudging around, performing various tasks all around the compound. There were guards as well, mindlessly patrolling around for intruders. There were no patterns in their movements, yet no one collided with one another or disturbed each other. Everyone moved with fluidity, like an advanced AI moving various objects on a monitor screen.

Peter walked past them with equal fluidity until he arrived at his destination in the far side of the secret lab. He opened the door and approached the device he was here to pick up. It was the culmination of studying and researching on all the Mega Rings taken from other trainers. But it was incomplete. It was still useable, but not in the desired scope. Further research was required.

Peter took out the Mega Bracelets he took from Ruby and Sapphire and placed them on the table where the new Mega Ring was. He then put on the Mega Ring and headed out of the secret lab. Within two days, the research would be complete. Then everything would be set in motion.

Until then, he had to test the new Mega Ring. And he had to scout the opposition. These Dex Holders. They will pose problems. They always posed problems. So it was time to assess the strength of the Dex Holder group. Two or three of them working together was not a problem. Many more gathered together may pose a serious threat. Data needed to be gathered.

But one thing was certain. One Dex Holder would not be causing any problems. Blue. She was not a threat. In fact, there was a high likelihood that she would be of some assistance instead. And when the time came, her assistance may prove to be invaluable. She was on the verge. It was only a matter of time before she turned, at which point a little convincing would get her to fight her former friends and allies. It was inevitable.

But until then, the other Dex Holders must not know about her whereabouts. To do that, Peter would simply have to attract their attention.

Peter got onto his shiny Salamence once more and after another Hyper Voice, flew through the gap created in the waterfall. His next destination was Kanto to meet the other Dex Holders. 5 were on their way from Sinnoh. 4 were on their way from Hoenn. He would meet them before they regrouped with the others.


	8. First Strike

Chapter 8: First Strike

August 28, Vermillion City, Kanto, 12:30 pm…

Sapphire yawned and rolled her eyes as she listened to Ruby and White _still_ discussing some hybrid Contest/Musical ideas. They were like… volcanoes of ideas. They never stopped talking and these ideas were endless. And they were so excited about them too. The ferry was set to arrive in Vermillion City within a few minutes, and Sapphire could not wait to get off so she didn’t have to hear another appeal idea.

She glanced over at Black, who was sitting next to her with a blank look. At least someone was bored out of his mind too.

“Hey Black,” she started. “You said your goal was to become the Pokémon League winner, right?”

Black looked over at her and nodded. “Yeah. What about it?”

“Let’s just say that I know someone who won the league when he was 11,” she said casually. “Well, turning 12. Would you like to meet him?”

Black sat up straight so quickly that Sapphire almost jumped in surprise. “Would I? I’d love to! I’m going to challenge him to a battle!”

Sapphire laughed. “Oh, I don’t think you’re a match for him yet. I’m no match for him either. He’s a senior Dex Holder, the second one in existence. And now that I’m in Kanto, I intend to train with him all day every day.”

“I’ll train with him too. I want to get stronger, and I want to see how strong this senior Dex Holder is.”

“He’s usually in Pallet Town, I think,” Sapphire said as she crossed her arms. “And that’s not that far away from Vermillion City, so we should be able to see him in a little while.”

Soon, there was an announcement that the ferry had arrived in Vermillion City. Sapphire and Black jumped up to their feet and practically dragged Ruby and White out of the ferry.

“Come on, hurry up!” Sapphire yelled.

“Don’t be so hasty!” Ruby yelled back. “We have to take our luggage, you know. I didn’t pack everything back in Littleroot just so I could leave them here!”

 _Eventually_ , the four Dex Holders got off the ferry and took their first steps into Kanto. Or at least the harbor.

“Okay, so Pallet Town is… which direction?” Black asked.

Ruby was about to pull out the map when Sapphire stopped him. She looked very alert, as if something huge was happening right outside.

“What’s wrong?” White asked.

“I can hear something…” Sapphire muttered. She suddenly ran towards the exit, causing the other three Dex Holders to follow her.

Outside the harbor, they spotted a large Pokémon battle. But it wasn’t a battle. It was a fight. There were five unfamiliar trainers, battling one familiar one… the Mega Hunter!

“There he is!” Sapphire said angrily through clenched teeth.

“Let’s go! Help those five!” Ruby yelled.

The four Dex Holders bolted to action to support the five trainers. From the battlefield, Y heard the shout and glanced backwards. Though she didn’t know who the four trainers were, she could tell that they were here to help out.

“X! It’s now 9 on 1! We can do this!”

The reinforcing Dex Holders sent out their Pokémon. Sapphire’s Blaziken, Aggron, and Gallade, Ruby’s Swampert, Milotic, and Gardevoir, Black’s Emboar, Braviary, and Galvantula, and White’s Serperior, Solosis, and Alomomola. With the current five Dex Holders’ Pokémon, there were a lot of Pokémon in the field at once. Diamond had Torterra, Bastiodon, and Mamoswine. Pearl had Infernape, Tauros, and Luxray. Platinum had Empoleon, Rapidash, and Lopunny. X had Kangaskhan, Manectric, and Chespin. And Y had Froakie, Sylveon, and Fletchinder.

“Give us our Mega Bracelets back!” Sapphire yelled out in anger.

The Mega Hunter began to laugh. He pointed at his wrist, revealing his own Mega Ring. “You mean this? Just try and take it.” He suddenly returned every Pokémon he had on the field and sent out new ones. He only sent out 6, however, turning the battle into a 27 vs. 6 fight.

With a bright sparkle, all 6 Pokémon appeared on the field. Charizard, Typhlosion, Houndoom, Infernape, Chandelure, and Volcarona.

“All Fire types,” Sapphire said to Ruby. “You’ll have to hit them hard! Let’s go, Kiruru!”

Sapphire’s Gallade heard the order and acted as the vanguard. With its elbow blades extended to the max, it began to charge forward, prompting the other Pokémon to do the same.

The Dex Holders’ Pokémon rapidly approached, but the Mega Hunter remained calm. He pressed the Key Stone on his Mega Ring. The entire ring glowed and emitted a beam towards both Charizard and Houndoom. With a roar and a howl, both Pokémon simultaneously Mega Evolved.

The Mega Charizard (Y) roared at the skies and as it did so, the sunlight heavily intensified. The Mega Houndoom howled as it now received its Solar Power boost and prepared to attack. But the Infernape and Typhlosion attacked first. The shiny Infernape directed its power at the Typhlosion, using Helping Hand to assist in the Volcano Pokémon’s attack.

“Everyone get down!” Pearl yelled abruptly. “Eruption incoming!”

The Typhlosion attacked before Pearl finished warning the others. A massive burst of smoke and fire erupted from its collar, covering the entire opposing team in a hellish blast. The attack received a huge power boost from the intense sunlight and was even further boosted by Helping Hand. The attack was so powerful that the Fire and Water type Pokémon were badly injured from the attack, let alone the Grass types. The resulting explosion was enough to knock back all 9 Dex Holders as well.

Platinum’s Rapidash remained unfazed due to Flash Fire and continued to attack. But the Mega Hunter’s other Pokémon were present for that reason. The Mega Houndoom saw the Rapidash approach and blasted it backwards with Dark Pulse. The shiny Chandelure joined in with Shadow Ball as well, and the two combined blasts were enough to send the Rapidash flying backwards.

Sapphire coughed violently thanks to the smoke caused from Eruption and tried to clear the area around her. “Ruby! Are you okay?”

“Yeah… you?” came Ruby’s voice from the smoke.

“I think I’m in one piece.”

“Damn it, we have to dodge that Eruption! It’ll wipe us all out if we don’t!”

The smoke soon cleared, revealed the charred result of the Eruption. Many Pokémon were no longer capable of fighting. All the Dex Holders were in one piece though, and they all slowly rose to their feet.

“Heal Pulse!” White coughed out to her Alomomola. Her Pokémon did its best to heal as many of the other Pokémon as possible. The Eruption did so much damage though, that the Heal Pulse wasn’t enough.

The shiny Typhlosion used Eruption again. But this time, the Dex Holders were prepared. Many Pokémon dodged the blast, and the others managed to shield themselves effectively enough to withstand it. But that was accounted for, apparently, as the other 5 shiny Pokémon all used Flamethrower or Heat Wave to inflict horrible damage to the entire opposing team once more.

But even that wasn’t the end, as the Mega Hunter had sent out his Dragon Pokémon while his Fire Pokémon provided fire support.

Sapphire saw her Gallade fighting with the Mega Hunter’s Salamence. And it wasn’t going so well. Both rounds of Eruption had caused quite the damage, and the follow up Heat Wave and Flamethrower had almost knocked it out completely. And now it had to go toe to toe with Salamence.

“Kiruru!” Sapphire cried in horror as she watched her Gallade get brutally pummeled by the shiny Salamence.

Ruby’s Gardevoir quickly jumped in to try to save the Gallade, but got hit by the Chandelure’s Shadow Ball instead.

X and Y were experiencing a similar event, with the Mega Hunter’s Garchomp. The two Kalos Dex Holders tried to concentrate their attacks on it, but the Mach Pokémon simply shredded through the combined attacks and demolished their Pokémon one by one.

Black and White had to fight off the Mega Hunter’s Dragonite, but to no avail. The two Unova Dex Holders did their best to attack, but the Dragonite shrugged off the attacks and retaliated with Outrage.

The Sinnoh Dex Holders were facing Hydreigon, but fared no better. The Brutal Pokémon fired Dragon Pulse at the three Dex Holders’ Pokémon at once, and its three heads were each locked on to one Dex Holder’s Pokémon, so repositioning did nothing. No matter how hard Pearl warned of Dragon Pulse, the Brutal Pokémon’s triple Dragon Pulse always hit a target.

The Mega Hunter’s Fire Pokémon kept attacking as well. The continuous stream of Flamethrower, Heat Wave, and Eruption prevented the Dex Holders from doing any sort of a coordinated attack, leaving them vulnerable to systematic destruction. The Mega Hunter watched the carnage unfold before he pressed the Key Stone on his Mega Ring once more. This time, his Salamence and Garchomp were selected for Mega Evolving.

The shiny Salamence knocked Sapphire’s Gallade into the girl with its tail and then Mega Evolved. Sapphire embraced her Gallade and gasped in terror as the shiny Mega Salamence towered over her. Ruby quickly pulled her away, and narrowly avoided the Dragon Pokémon’s Thrash. The Mega Salamence wasn’t willing to let its targets escape that easily. It charged forward and swung a vicious claw at the two Hoenn Dex Holders. Again, Sapphire was completely locked up from seeing Salamence up close. Ruby knew it as well and knew that he was the only one able to do something. He couldn’t leave Sapphire in harm’s way and it was too late to pull her out of the attack. He quickly embraced her and spun around, using his own body to shield her from the Mega Salamence.

Sapphire snapped back into focus when she heard Ruby’s pained groan in her ear. She suddenly realized what happened and even as she collapsed onto the ground, she spun around to face Ruby.

“R – Ruby… Ruby!”

At the same time, the shiny Garchomp had Mega Evolved as well, and was now threatening X and Y even more. The Mega Garchomp smashed Y’s Fletchinder out of the air and slammed its tail into the Sylveon. X’s Pokémon tried to assist but the Mega Garchomp repelled their attacks with its scythe claws.

The Garchomp changed its target to X. Y saw the sudden target shift and jumped in the way to protect him.

“No! You’re not getting to him!” she yelled angrily.

Unfortunately, neither Dex Holder had any Pokémon that could fight off the Mega Garchomp, and neither Dex Holder was capable of fending off the Pokémon on their own. The Garchomp slammed the side of its claw into Y, knocking her away. It then swung its scythes at X, but Y had rolled up to her feet and quickly helped X in dodging the attack. But the quick dodge that made both Dex Holders crash onto the ground, and while X managed to get back up to his feet, Y had difficulty doing so.

The Garchomp saw the girl’s immobility and tried to attack again, but a huge stream of fire came down from the skies, forcing it to dodge. The other Dragon Pokémon on the field saw the attack as well and slowly backed off into their side of the battlefield. X helped Y get up to her feet and watched as an Aerodactyl and a Charizard swoop down to ground level and two trainers hopped off.

“Red… Green…” Sapphire mumbled out as her seniors came into her view.

Red quickly ran towards them to check on them while Green watched the Mega Hunter. There were 9 trainers here facing the Mega Hunter apart from themselves. Two of those are Ruby and Sapphire, who were very strong trainers. And yet, given the carnage around the battlefield, this battle was strictly one sided. Right now, none of the 9 trainers were able to fight. Which meant, there was very little Red and Green could do right now. So the priorities had to be shifted. Instead of defeating the enemy, the two Kanto Dex Holders had to focus on rescuing the 9 trainers.

The Mega Hunter laughed. “Red and Green. You two are of no match for me by yourselves like this. Go back to Pallet Town. Take these 9 Dex Holders with you. Heal up, gather your strength, and train together. Prepare yourselves to face me with your full power. I will come back for you in three days.”

Green glanced at the unfamiliar trainers scattered around. ‘ _9 Dex Holders?_ ’

“Why?” Red growled out. “Why let us gather our full strength?”

The Mega Hunter began to walk away. “It will spare me the effort of hunting you down individually or chasing down the weakened ones.”

The shiny Pokémon kept their guard up but slowly followed their trainer one by one. Eventually, the Mega Hunter returned all of them except the Mega Salamence and with it, flew off somewhere.

Sapphire focused on Ruby once more. She quickly checked over him for injuries, and found a deep gash on his back where the Salamence had hit him. The boy was still conscious, so she stopped trying to examine the wound, as it would be quite painful.

“Ruby… are you okay?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“Yeah… I think I’ll be fine,” Ruby answered as he struggled to rise to his feet. “If I have _another_ Salamence scar…”

“… I’m so sorry,” Sapphire mumbled out. “I just… don’t know what to do against Salamence…”

“It’s okay. We’ll overcome it together.”

“So… what now?” Black asked as he came over with White.

Green turned to face them. “We go to Pallet Town, gather every Dex Holder, and we prepare ourselves.”

…

Peter remained standing completely still next to the Diglett’s Cave. So all of the Dex Holders were gathered in Kanto with the exception of Blue. No, it wasn’t time yet to ask her for help. And it wasn’t time to carry out the plan. The junior Dex Holders were thoroughly scouted, but the seniors were not. The upcoming fight in three days would be the first time all the Dex Holders worked together. That data must be collected.

“Hey! You’re a trainer! Come battle me!” a voice came from the left.

Peter turned to face the direction of the voice. A youngster was holding a Pokéball containing a Raticate in front of him with a smug expression, and he was exuding an overwhelming amount of confidence. Peter silently sent out one Pokémon. A black Haxorus popped out and promptly stomped the youngster’s Raticate flat.

“Grab him,” Peter ordered.

The youngster tried to run but the Haxorus had grabbed him before he could start. The Haxorus held him in the air while Peter slowly approached him. He took out something from his bag. An Ultra Ball. He held it with both hands and kept in on eye level with the youngster.

The youngster panicked and tried to kick, but the shiny Haxorus threatened him with the dual axe blades on its jaws, forcing him to stay idle. The Ultra Ball started to glow as the Pokémon inside made its move. The Ultra Ball glowed more and more and the youngster was forced to look at it. He stopped struggling more and more until he stopped moving entirely. His eyes went blank as his arms fell to his side. The shiny Haxorus released him and yet he didn’t move.

“… Assimilation… successful…” the youngster muttered in monotone.

Peter put the Ultra Ball away and returned his Haxorus. The youngster remained idle.

“Awaiting directive…”

“Go to Pallet Town,” Peter said. “See what the Dex Holders are up to.”

The youngster began to walk. “I obey…”

Good. Now there was a scout in the region of Kanto. The scouts of Kalos did not have to move. Instead, they could continue their current task of watching Blue and making sure that she did not do anything to assist her former friends.

And currently, Blue was in Anistar City’s café for a little break. Excellent. The other scouts were scattered across Kalos, gathering various bits of information.

New information came in regarding one of the Dex Holders. Y of Vaniville Town. She was a Sky Trainer. Though she had no opportunities to fight in the skies so far, in the next battle, she would most certainly try to bring the fight to her favor.

A battle against a large group of enemies without having enough information was bad. It was worse if the enemy had air superiority. As such, the Dex Holder’s air superiority had to be neutralized. Meaning, in the next battle, Y would have to be taken out of action as soon as possible. The senior Dex Holders had to be active in the battle so their battling tactics and style could be observed.

Peter once again sent out his Salamence and hopped on. He had to prepare for the battle against the Dex Holders, starting with contesting for air superiority.


	9. Back in the Saddle

Chapter 9: Back in the Saddle

August 28, New Bark Town, Johto, 1:00 pm…

Gold stared at the pool table in front of him, thinking of new pool tricks. He was practicing his variety of tricks, none of which were exactly… useful. Hmm… if he aimed the cue at this angle at this location of the cue ball and hit it with this amount of force… … the cue ball would just fly up into the air and out of the table. That would be quite pointless.

Gold angled his billiard cue and was about to take a shot when the radio started to emit white noise as if the station was being changed. The goggled boy walked over and began to smack the radio on the back.

“Damn it, get back to DJ Mary!”

The radio emitted another static before a voice emanated from the speaker.

“We interrupt your regular scheduled broadcast to deliver a breaking news report!”

Gold shut off the radio. “Argh, whatever.” He proceeded to focus on the pool table once more, but his Pokégear began to vibrate. “Ah, damn it… what now?” With a frustrated sigh, he answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hi, Gold,” came Crystal’s voice from the other side.

“Hey, Super Serious Gal,” Gold said. “Are you begging me to take you back now?”

Crystal let out an exasperated sigh. “For the last time, Gold, _you_ were the one begging. And we had an agreement to end the relationship.”

“Says the girl who dumped me,” Gold grumbled. “… What do you want?”

“Come to Pallet Town, quick. Ruby and Sapphire came here from Hoenn. They were attacked by a really strong enemy, and they need help. There are lots of other people who were attacked by the same enemy too.”

“It’s always business with you, isn’t it, Crys?” Gold grumbled again.

“Gold, now is not the time.”

“It’s never the time. Fine, I’m coming.” Gold hung up and stuffed his Pokégear into his pocket. ‘ _Well… at least there are lots of opportunities to impress Crys in events like these. That’s how we got together in the first place, after that whole Sinjoh Ruins thing three years ago._ ’

…

Pallet Town, 1:30 pm…

…

Green paced around while Red leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. The television in the room was showing the news broadcast of what happened in Vermillion City. The news didn’t offer any footage of what happened, however, and only showed the aftermaths. There were lots of speculations from the people of Vermillion, none of which were of any help.

“Another bad guy, huh?” Red said.

Green let out a sigh. “… This is a bad time to deal with something like this…”

“Where are the others?” Sapphire asked. “Like… Blue and Gold?”

“Blue is… gone,” Green answered. “She discarded her Pokédex and left. We’ve been looking for her all over the place, but we haven’t even heard anything about her yet. And now, with new enemy out there, we won’t be able to look for her anymore.”

“Gold should be getting here pretty soon,” Crystal said. “And Silver is coming too, but it may take a while. He’s currently in the Sevii Islands looking for Blue.” She directed her attention to Green. “Green… I know finding Blue is very important. I really do. But right now, I think we should focus on the new threat.”

Green reluctantly nodded. “… Damn it…”

“She’ll understand,” Red said. “If you were missing and she was here, she’d probably do the same.”

‘ _Would she?_ ’ “Fine. We’ll beat the enemy first and then focus on finding Blue.” Green glanced at all the unfamiliar faces in the room. “First, introduce yourselves. The enemy referred to you as Dex Holders. So explain.”

The Sinnoh Dex Holders stood up first.

“My name is Platinum Berlitz, and these are my friends Diamond and Pearl,” Platinum said, introducing her friends. “We are from the region of Sinnoh, and we are Sinnoh Dex Holders, and have been for five years. We were attacked by the Mega Hunter, and Professor Rowan advised me to seek out the other Dex Holders if we were overwhelmed.” She gave a courteous bow. “It is an honor to meet you.”

Red gave her a nod of acknowledgement while Green looked over at Black and White. The Sinnoh Dex Holders sat down and the Unova Dex Holders stood up.

“My name is White, and this is Black,” White started. “I’m the president of the BW Agency, the Event Planner for Pokéstar Studios, and I’m one of the Unova Dex Holders, with Black being the other one. We’ve been Dex Holders for two years now. We met Ruby and Sapphire in Lilycove City of Hoenn, and I had a business proposition for Ruby. But he said he was attacked by the Mega Hunter and was on his way here to meet you, so Black and I tagged along.”

The Kalos Dex Holders stood up next. Y glanced at X, to see if he wanted to introduce himself. But apparently, X was still reluctant in speaking in front of an unfamiliar group. Y understood and began the introduction.

“I’m Y, and this is X. We’re Kalos Dex Holders, and have been for a little over a year now. We were attacked by the Mega Hunter several days back, and Professor Sycamore told us that there was another trainer with a Mega Ring in Sinnoh, which turned out to be Miss Platinum. We went to Sinnoh, but we arrived too late. And together, we came to Kanto to seek out assistance.”

Crystal blinked as she looked at all of the junior Dex Holders. “… Oh, wow…” she muttered quietly.

“What?” Emerald asked from the side.

“Until yesterday, I was sure that you and Ruby and Sapphire were my only juniors,” Crystal said. “Meaning, I wasn’t on the senior side of the Dex Holders quite yet. And now… I’m suddenly one of the oldest.” She let out a sigh and focused on the task at hand. “Which also means that it’s our responsibility to ensure that the junior Dex Holders are safe.”

“Knowledge comes first,” Green said. “We need to know the enemy in order to defeat him. So describe your encounters with him. What Pokémon did he use?”

“He had a really powerful Garchomp,” Y said as she focused on her memories.

“And a Dragonite,” X added quietly, suddenly remembering how Y was physically crushed by the Garchomp and hit by Dragonite’s Fire Punch.

“And Salamence,” Sapphire said as she lowered her head.

“He had a _lot_ of Pokémon,” Ruby said as he put his hand on top of Sapphire’s. “But the most notable thing he did was with his Fire and Dragon Pokémon.”

“Yes. He had his Fire type Pokémon provide ranged support while his Dragon Pokémon attacked from close up,” Platinum said. “His Typhlosion’s Eruption was very powerful. It must be our top priority.”

“We can’t do anything against his Fire Pokémon until we deal with those Dragons,” Sapphire said immediately. The two girls glanced at each other momentarily before focusing on the two Kanto Dex Holders.

“If that guy’s Pokémon are coordinated, then we should be too,” Red said. “Divide ourselves into three groups. One group deals with the Dragons, one deals with the Fire types, and the other deals with whatever else this guy’s got.”

Green nodded. “Three groups. Unfortunately, Blue is not with us, so this group distribution won’t be balanced. So Red, pick who you want to be on your team.”

“Wait,” Crystal said. “We need cooperation between team members. So why don’t we start training together and see what happens? While training, it’ll be easier to see who work better together.”

“Good idea,” Red said. “All right then, junior guys. Let’s see what you got.”

…

Red watched as the various Dex Holders trained with their Pokémon. Currently, none of the Dex Holders were training with those from a different region. Gold trained on his own, Silver trained on his own, Crystal was looking over the others, Ruby and Sapphire were practicing Double Battles, Emerald trained on his own, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum were training together, Black was training White, and X was training on his own. Hmm… it was probably not what was supposed to happen. Inter-generational friendship was important. And that was supposed to be promoted here.

“Um, excuse me, Red,” Y started as she approached the Kanto Dex Holder.

Red snapped out of his thoughts and faced his newest junior. “Hm? What is it?”

“For the upcoming battle, I’d like to fight where it’s best for me. And to do that, I may need everyone’s help.”

“What do you mean?” Red asked.

“I’m a Sky Trainer,” Y explained. “I fight better in the skies. If you let me borrow your Pokémon that can fly, I may be able to help out much better.”

“Air superiority, huh?” Red began. “Let’s see it then. Can you give us a demonstration?”

“Sure, but it’ll take an hour for me to put my flight suit on. So if you’ll wait…”

…

An hour later, Y came out of Red’s house wearing her flight suit. The other Dex Holders watched as the girl took flight with the help of her Fletchinder. Within a few seconds, she was able to maintain stability while flying.

Red sent out his Aerodactyl, Gold his Togekiss, and Sapphire her Tropius. The three Pokémon flew up towards Y and her Fletchinder.

“Maintain formation!” Y ordered as she flew side by side with her Fletchinder. The other aerial Pokémon did as told and the group soon formed a triangular shape in the air. “Miss Platinum! Attack me!” she said abruptly.

The heiress frowned but soon sent out her Empoleon. The Pokémon staggered a little as it still retained some of its Garchomp wounds, but soon stabilized and used Hydro Pump. Y flew straight towards the attack but spun around it just before it hit her. The Empoleon adjusted its aim, but Y still spun around the attack and swooped down. She tapped the Empoleon on the shoulder, indicating that she was victorious in this situation, as she got close enough to attack without being hit at all.

For the next several minutes, Y gave out the instructions to allow the other aerial Pokémon to do what she just did. Green and the other Dex Holders soon joined in and lent Y their aerial Pokémon as well.

Within an hour, all of the aerial Pokémon were able to maintain a close formation and dodge incoming attacks together, swoop down and attack a particular target from afar, and even charge straight towards a cluster of targets to force them to split, thus preventing the targets from coordinating with each other.

Eventually, Y gently landed on the ground to end the training. She took off her helmet and sighed in relief as she sat down on the grass. She wiped away the sweat on her forehead and looked at her seniors to see what they thought.

“You have done spectacularly,” Platinum said with a smile.

“So… what exactly is the purpose of this air show?” Sapphire asked. “Wouldn’t this mean we’re just dividing up our Pokémon? Some fight on land, others in the air. We won’t be grouped together. I know dodging Eruption is crucial, but if we split up too much, we’ll be crushed by the close range Pokémon.”

“If we maintain air superiority,” the heiress started. “We will be able to distract the Typhlosion and the other Fire type Pokémon, thereby removing the Dragons’ ranged support. Also, we will be able to pick off key targets of the close range Pokémon and even assist wherever we require assistance.”

Sapphire crossed her arms. “Did it ever occur to you that most of these Dragons can fly? Salamence, Dragonite, Hydreigon… even Garchomp. And some of his Fire Pokémon could fly too. Like Charizard and Volcarona. Not to mention, that Mega Hunter guy probably has other Pokémon that can fly. So what’s the point?”

“At the very least, we will be able to divert a large portion of the enemy Pokémon to the skies,” Platinum answered, getting a little frustrated. “It is much easier to evade oncoming attacks in the air.”

“Listen up,” Green said from behind, stopping the two girls from arguing any further. “The air superiority training continues. But we have to focus on the ground as well. So we need to train. And at the same time, we need to work on intergenerational cooperation. We need teamwork. So we are going to divide into groups. Red, Gold, Sapphire, Platinum, Black, and Y. You are one group. Crystal, Emerald, Pearl, X, and I will be another. Yellow, Silver, Ruby, Diamond, and White, you are the last group. We will train with each other within our own groups for the next three days until we can fight efficiently.”

“Um… I think it’d be best if I just help everyone else,” Yellow said. “I mean, I’ll be of more help if I heal your-”

Sapphire suddenly perked up. She sniffed at the air and focused on her hearing.

“… What are you doing?” Gold asked.

“Someone’s here,” she said as she narrowed her eyes. “But it’s not the Mega Hunter. Someone else…”

“Find him,” Green ordered. “Everyone, spread out and search!”

Sapphire quickly moved here and there while sniffing at the air. Y took to the skies with the help of her Fletchinder and began to search the ground below.

“Movement!” she yelled out as she pointed at a bush near Route 1.

Sapphire heard her and looked up. With her superior sight, she could clearly see the direction Y was pointing, and quickly charged over. The other Dex Holders followed just in case the Mega Hunter was back.

Y focused on the bush where she spotted movement. She could also see Sapphire running towards the bush at a rapid rate. As the Hoenn Dex Holder got closer, a figure suddenly appeared from the bush and began to flee. Y squinted and could see some youngster running.

“Get him!”

Sapphire charged forward as fast as she could and quickly caught up with the fleeing youngster. Y stayed in the air and looked around the area in case the youngster had help from something. Ruby stood next to Sapphire, ready to assist if needed. Red and Green stood around the youngster and the two Hoenn Dex Holders to make sure that the youngster couldn’t flee.

Sapphire held the youngster down with one hand while she frisked him with the other. This youngster wasn’t carrying anything at all. No Pokémon, nothing like a Pokégear. Nothing.

“… Who are you?” Sapphire asked. “And what were you doing?”

From far away, Peter leaned against the Diglett’s Cave while focusing. So the scout has been caught. No matter. Enough data had been collected. Even right now, data was being collected about the Dex Holders. As expected, Y was using her Sky Trainer skills, as a spotter and air superiority fighter.

And these Dex Holders were planning to develop intergenerational cooperation for increased battle efficiency. Interesting… That teamwork practice had to be observed and scouted. But with the youngster’s capture, it was harder to scout on them. So perhaps a battle test is in order.

Most of the scouts currently in Kalos had their orders now. They are to move to Kanto and attack the Dex Holders. This will get the Dex Holders to utilize whatever teamwork strategy they came up with to counter the overwhelming numbers. Their response data would be invaluable. And necessary. And if luck has it, the current captured youngster would still be of some use as well.

… Yes. The Dex Holders were keeping him as a prisoner in their “headquarters” of the research lab in Pallet Town. Excellent. The Dex Holders have just doomed themselves. In the battle coming up in three days, Pallet Town will fall. The Dex Holders will scatter, and everything will start fall into place.


	10. Shatter the Sky

Chapter 10: Shatter the Sky

August 28, Pallet Town, 6 pm…

Sapphire returned her Blaziken for a break in the training session. Y let out a sigh of relief and petted her Sylveon. She didn’t return it yet, however.

“You’re getting stronger and stronger,” Sapphire said as she approached her junior. “Certainly much better than a few hours back.”

“Thank you,” Y said with a smile. “I’m learning a lot from the senior Dex Holders.”

“I know that feeling. I’m going to go train with Ruby now, but if you want to train with me again, let me know, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you so much.”

Y sat beside her Sylveon and fixed its ribbons. As she did so, she couldn’t help but feel so… weak. All of her Pokémon were small and rather frail. The other Dex Holders were so much stronger and had bigger, bulkier Pokémon. Currently, her strongest Pokémon was Sylveon. But it wasn’t that strong. She needed a bigger stronger Pokémon. X had Kangaskhan and Manectric. Platinum had Empoleon and Rapidash. Bigger Pokémon that could take more damage. But so far, she had Froakie, Fletchinder, and Sylveon. She needed a new Pokémon… Something she could use in the air too, perhaps.

“Finished with your training?” came a female voice from behind.

Y looked back and saw Platinum walking over. She quickly scrambled up to her feet. Because of the heiress’s background, Y figured that she should show proper manners and courtesy to get on her good side. Being rude to someone who was raised with so much manners and etiquettes would probably end badly. Not to mention, the heiress was stronger and was her senior.

“Hi, Miss Platinum,” Y said with a short bow. “Is there… um…”

Platinum smiled. “Such formality is not necessary.”

“Oh. Okay then… I’m taking a break from training. And Veevee’s ribbons are all out of place.”

The Sylveon purred, indicating that it wanted its trainer to continue fixing its ribbons. Y sat next to it and resumed fixing the ribbons. The heiress smiled as she watched. The Sylveon looked so cute here…

Red walked up towards his two juniors, wondering what they were doing. “Hey, what are you up to?”

“Oh, hello, senior Red,” Platinum said with a polite bow.

“I’m fixing Veevee’s ribbons. They got a little messy during training,” Y explained.

Red looked at the Sylveon. “So that’s a Sylveon, huh? Another evolution possibility of Eevee…” He sent out his Espeon. “Vee here used to be able to evolve and de-evolve back and forth between Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon when it used to be an Eevee. I guess back then, Team Rocket didn’t know about Espeon, Umbreon, Glaceon, Leafeon, and Sylveon.”

The Espeon stood next to the Sylveon and purred. The Sylveon purred as well and smiled.

“Aww, they’re so adorable!” Y said as she finished brushing her Sylveon’s ribbons.

Platinum nodded as she crouched in front of the two Pokémon. “Yes. They are very cute.” She gently petted her senior’s Espeon. The Espeon purred happily and reached up to her hand with its little paws.

“Hey, I think Vee likes you,” Red said with a smile. “I think I’ll lend you Vee.”

“Are you sure, senior?” Platinum asked in surprise.

“Yeah. Your Pokémon team isn’t complete, right? Until then, take Vee with you.”

“Thank you so much, senior!” Platinum said excitedly. “Vee, it is nice to meet you, and for the time being, you will be joining my team.”

The Espeon nodded. The heiress moved her hand closer and the Espeon put one of its paws on the hand for a little handshake.

“Now train with it,” Red said. “I’m sure you’ll need to train with it a little to get to know it better.”

“Yes, senior. Of course. Thank you.”

“Have fun.”

Red walked away from the two girls and let them… squeal over the apparent cuteness of the two Pokémon. Y did the squealing, mostly, as apparently Platinum was too… serious for it? Hmm…

“Uh… excuse me, Red?” came a voice from behind.

Red looked over and saw Diamond standing next to him. “Yeah? What’s up?”

“Uh… the Lady is in your team,” the Sinnoh boy started.

“Who?”

“Lady Platinum Berlitz,” Diamond clarified. “She’s the only daughter of the prestigious Berlitz family. She’s the heiress to the family. She has to stay safe. She must not be harmed. But she’s in your team. I would protect her at all costs if I could stay with her, but since she’s in your team and I’m not, I can’t do that anymore. So can you protect her for me? Just make sure that she doesn’t get hurt.”

Red glanced at the back of his house, where he could see Platinum and Y playing with Espeon and Sylveon. He watched the two girls for a short while before facing Diamond once more.

“Sure thing,” he said with a nod. “I’ll try my best to keep her out of harm’s way.”

Diamond let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

When Diamond left, Red crossed his arms and thought. So far, his team had 3 girls in it: Sapphire, Platinum, and Y. Sapphire probably didn’t need any protecting. Y… didn’t look like she needed protecting. She just needed some training lessons. But Platinum… Hmm… He sort of figured that she may need protection. He saw enough “lady” types to know what they were like. Though Platinum was quite higher in status than the likes of Misty and Erika, the two Gym Leaders were sort of similar. And they kept around _some_ bodyguards in their homes. And if Platinum was of a higher status than those two, then she would have a lot of guards around her home. And here she was right now, without any guards, about to face a strong enemy once more. She would not be ready.

Red watched Platinum from afar. Yes. He will make sure that nothing bad happens to her. But to do that, he had to get close to her too. If she trusted him enough, then he would be able to protect her a little better. But it was important for her if she got along with the other Dex Holders too. She seemed to get along with Y right now, so Red left her alone. He’d just find Green and see if that captured youngster was willing to open his mouth.

White walked by and spotted Platinum and Y playing with the two Pokémon. She immediately stopped in her tracks.

“Aww, they’re so cute!” she said as she ran over towards the two. “Oh, wow!”

“I know, right?” Y said as she petted her Sylveon.

White took out a video camera from her bag. Y’s expression suddenly turned rigid. Platinum noticed the sudden change.

“Is something wrong?”

Y shook her head and tried to revert her expression to normal. “Sorry. I… don’t really like people with cameras.”

“Why not?” White asked in surprise.

“They’re what caused X to be like what he is now,” Y replied. “But… I guess it’s okay. You’re no paparazzi.”

“If you don’t like it, I won’t film your Sylveon,” White said. “But Lady Platinum, do you mind if I…”

“No. Go ahead,” Platinum said. She gave _her_ Espeon a gentle pat as White began to film.

Y returned her Sylveon and walked away so that she could find X.

Meanwhile, Gold walked over towards X, as he found a suitable nickname for him.

“Hey, Mega Boy,” he called. X frowned as he faced his senior.

“What?”

“You. Mega Boy. Like the name?” Gold asked. “And your girl can be Sky Girl. I got it all figured out for all of you. Now, I already call Crys as Super Serious Gal, Ruby as Fashion Boy, Sapphire as Wildchild Girl, and Emerald as Odd Boy. Dia can be Slow Bro, Pearl can be Hasty Boy, Platinum as Super Formal Gal, Black as Dream Boy, White as Dream Girl, you’re Mega Boy, and your girl is Sky Girl.”

“… Sky Girl?” X muttered, wondering how strange that sounded for Y. Though it made sense, anything other than Y or YP felt odd.

“Yeah. Your girl was pretty good in the air,” Gold said. “And if she’s a Sky Trainer, then it fits, no?”

X glared at him. “She’s not my girl.”

“I heard that before,” Gold said as he looked over at Ruby training with Sapphire. “Fashion Boy over there always says Wildchild Girl isn’t his girl. But everyone knows she is. Or maybe he’s _her_ man. Same deal for you, huh?”

X gripped his senior’s shoulder. “Y. Isn’t. My. Girl!”

“Okay, okay! Take it easy!” Gold said, surprised at X’s anger. “The hell’s the matter with you? A girl like that isn’t bad, you know.”

X gritted his teeth but didn’t respond. Instead, he released his senior’s shoulder and walked away. Unknown to him, however, Y was right behind another door and heard his words. The girl looked down at herself, wondering why exactly X hated the idea. … Was there something wrong with her?

She let out a long sigh and walked away as well. Maybe… he just didn’t want to spend an unnecessary amount of time with her. That would make sense as to why she has to try so hard to drag him out of the house, or just get him to allow her inside.

… Maybe… maybe if she just impresses him? Or if she got him his Mega Ring and Mega Stone back…

…

August 30, 8 am…

…

Y continued her rigorous training. She had to get stronger and fast if she was going to get X his Mega Stone and Ring back. In the past two days, she got to train a lot with Sapphire and then with Platinum. For some reason, the heiress didn’t seem to want to train with Sapphire. Something was going on between the two, but Y couldn’t really do anything there.

But so far, Y trained a lot with Sapphire and Platinum and learned a lot from them. Her Pokémon were stronger than ever, and she was getting along better and better with her two seniors. White came along every now and then to train as well, but the Unova Dex Holder didn’t exactly care that much about battling. She still trained anyways because of the encroaching threat, but she wasn’t interested in them. As a result, Platinum and Y took more time just getting to know White and practicing Pokémon combinations.

Y snapped out of her thoughts when she saw something approaching from afar. She flew over towards Route 1 and focused on the road ahead. … There were seemingly hundreds of people marching towards Pallet Town. What the…

Y flew in place and just watched. She didn’t know if they were trying to attack Pallet Town, or were just flooding towards a concert or something. They… were similar to that captured youngster in terms of behavior… She quickly landed and ran towards Red’s house. She opened the door and saw Black starting to wake up in the living room. Red was already awake and looked at her, wondering what was going on.

“We have incoming,” Y said between breaths. “We have lots of people heading over here, and I don’t think they’re friendly.”

Gold, Sapphire, and Platinum woke up from their sleep. While they fought off the sleepiness, Red headed outside to see what was happening. Y ran towards Green’s house to alert everyone there as well.

Within a few minutes, the horde of people arrived in Pallet Town and the Dex Holders were ready. Y remained in the air to support the other Dex Holders. Every single one of the visitors sent out a Pokémon. But each sent out only one, and didn’t appear to have any more. These Pokémon weren’t shiny, and didn’t look nearly as threatening as the Mega Hunter’s.

“Consider this as live training,” Green said to everyone else. “Go and fight!”

“Gold, Sapphire!” Red called out. “You’re in the middle. Black, support them. Platinum, you stay close to me and we will attack wherever the enemy is the strongest.”

“All right Wildchild Girl, here’s the deal,” Gold said as he gripped his billiard cue. “Whoever beats fewer enemies has to do whatever the other one says for a day.”

“You’re on!” Sapphire yelled. “I’m not losing to you! Chaka, let’s go!”

Sapphire’s Blaziken charged forward and Sapphire followed after it. Gold’s Typhlosion did the same and the rest of Gold’s team followed as well. From above, Y saw her two seniors charge forward and got the other aerial Pokémon to prepare to assist. There was a large group of Golbats and Swoobats moving to intercept the two Dex Holders, so she got Red’s Aerodactyl to dissipate the group with a well placed Hyper Beam.

Emerald pressed the button on his Mega Bracelet. He was the only Dex Holder capable of using Mega Evolution at the moment, and he was going to use it. His Sceptile responded and Mega Evolved into Mega Sceptile. And immediately, it used Energy Ball to send a group of enemy Pokémon flying backwards.

White’s Serperior used Leaf Storm on a group of enemy Pokémon. Platinum got her Empoleon to assist with Blizzard, freezing all the leaves to make the attack more damaging.

Crystal observed the ongoing battle. “… Something’s wrong,” she muttered.

“What is?” Green asked.

“The enemy isn’t retreating,” she said. “They’re not exactly fighting back either. They’re just… taking hits.”

Green ignored the other Dex Holders and focused solely on the enemies. They weren’t giving out orders. They were just charging forward and getting attacked by the Dex Holders.

“… You’re right. They’re acting as if they’re…”

“Trying to see what our strategies are,” Crystal said. “… They must be scouts for that Mega Hunter!”

“Gold, Sapphire! Stop!” Green ordered abruptly. The two Dex Holders heard his order and stopped. They maintained a defensive position, but they weren’t attacked. The enemy trainers still weren’t attacking.

The enemy trainers suddenly returned their Pokémon and began to walk away. As the Dex Holders slowly grouped together once more, a shiny Salamence swooped down in front of them and a trainer hopped off. The Mega Hunter.

“You!” Sapphire growled out.

“Thank you for demonstrating your strategy,” the hunter said with a smirk. He began to send out his Pokémon 6 at a time. “Now bring it on.”

“Gladly!” Sapphire yelled again.

Again, Gold and Sapphire charged forward. This time, the enemy reacted. The shiny Garchomp and Salamence charged forward to meet the two Dex Holders. Immediately, things were different, as Sapphire froze in place when the Salamence came close. Ruby quickly moved to assist, taking Sapphire’s place instead. The Salamence swung its claw and Ruby’s Swampert managed to block the hit.

Platinum’s Empoleon, Lopunny, Rapidash, and Espeon faced the Mega Hunter’s Gardevoir and Gallade. The Rapidash used Fire Blast, but the Gardevoir had Traced Flash Fire and thus was completely immune to the blast. The Gallade took the time to knock the Empoleon and Lopunny back. The Espeon used Psychic to lift the Gallade into the air, but Gardevoir used Shadow Ball to blast it backwards.

Black and White were working together and supporting each other while facing the enemy’s shiny Blaziken and Sceptile. Black’s Emboar tried Flare Blitz against the Sceptile, but it was way too fast and dodged easily. The shiny Blaziken easily outran and pummeled White’s Solosis and Serperior, thus preventing the girl from helping Black in any way.

From high above, Y observed the battlefield. Ruby and Gold were struggling quite badly against the Mega Hunter’s Dragons. Silver was trying to distract the enemy’s Fire type Pokémon, and succeeded in distracting the Typhlosion thus disabling the Eruption. Red was assisting Platinum, but he couldn’t attack to his full capability because he was protecting the heiress. Platinum however, was fighting more aggressively than ever, as if she wanted to prove something.

Y clenched her teeth as she saw Emerald’s Mega Sceptile fall to the enemy’s Weavile and Cloyster. The Mega Hunter was prepared for this somehow. He knew that Emerald was the only Dex Holder capable of Mega Evolving and targeted his Sceptile first.

X and Crystal moved in to assist Gold and Ruby. But the Dragon Pokémon were too strong. With the support of the shiny Hydreigon firing Dragon Pulse, Flamethrower, and Dark Pulse three directions at once, the close range Dragon Pokémon were free to attack without any worry.

Y swooped down towards the Dragons. Her first priority was to distract the Dragons and even lure them into the sky. They were by far the toughest Pokémon in the enemy team, and they prevented the Dex Holders from attacking the ranged Pokémon entirely. The other aerial Pokémon swooped down as well. Red’s Aerodactyl used Hyper Beam again and Sapphire’s Tropius used Solarbeam to gain the Dragon Pokémon’s attention as well.

The Garchomp snarled as it dodged the Hyper Beam. It glared at Y swooping directly above and swung its claw at her. Y easily flew out of range, taunting the Garchomp even further. The shiny Salamence neutralized the Solarbeam with Flamethrower and glared at the Tropius.

As Y flew high into the skies again, she glanced down, hoping to see something different. She smiled and laughed in triumph as the Salamence and Dragonite flew towards her. The Garchomp and Hydreigon joined as well, meaning that Y had succeeded in luring _four_ Dragon Pokémon into the skies. And now, with Salamence gone, Sapphire was able to snap back into focus and resume fighting to her absolute best.

The Garchomp charged over at Y and swung its claws, aiming to cut her in half. The girl adeptly flew out of the way, however, before swooping down to its level.

“You’re in _my_ domain!” she yelled angrily. “You can’t harm me up here! You hear me?! _My_ domain!” She gave the order to the Pokémon all around her. “Attack!”

The aerial Pokémon around her all flapped their wings to create a huge gust of wind, successfully pushing the Garchomp into the other Dragons. The gusts of wind created a small vortex of air, preventing the Dragons from escaping.

“Veevee! Dazzling Gleam!” Y ordered right afterwards, seeing how the Dragons were clumped together.

The Sylveon hopped on top of the head of Sapphire’s Tropius and emitted a blinding burst of light at the Dragons. Since the Dragons were all clumped together so much, the Dazzling Gleam hit every single one equally hard, dealing a lot more damage than normal.

The Mega Hunter watched from afar as his Dragon Pokémon fell. No, they weren’t beaten, as they all regained balance long before they hit the ground. But they did take an uncomfortable amount of damage. As expected, the air superiority was a nuisance. But it had been accounted for. He tossed several Pokéballs into the air. These were the Pokémon he had hidden for this moment.

Y gasped in surprise when a handful of Pokémon suddenly appeared in front of her. With a distinct sparkle, the Pokémon materialized. A Pidgeot, Swellow, Staraptor, and Talonflame. The Pidgeot immediately Mega Evolved and the four birds joined into a triangular formation.

“Oh no…” Y muttered in horror. She quickly flew away from the birds and the aerial Pokémon on her side flew in and around to disorient the enemies.

But the shiny birds heeded no attention to them. The Mega Pidgeot flapped its powerful wings to create a large vortex of air which began to suck in many of the Dex Holder’s aerial Pokémon. Red’s Aerodactyl tried to dissipate the vortex so that the trapped Pokémon could escape. But doing so left Y only a small number of Pokémon by her side. And the Mega Hunter was sending out more and more Pokémon. Aerodactyl, Skarmory, Gliscor… They all joined in on the formation and charged at the group of Dex Holders’ Pokémon, dividing them up into two.

The shiny Swellow burned itself with the Flame Orb as it did so. It looked more determined than ever, however, as its Guts ability kicked in. The shiny Staraptor charged at Y first with Brave Bird, recklessly diving towards her like a missile. The Swellow joined in as well, and the two birds sped past every Pokémon nearby as they flew straight towards Y. The girl’s Fletchinder flew into the path to save its trainer with Flame Charge. But the enemy’s shiny Talonflame hit the Fletchinder first with Brave Bird before the other two birds got there, as its Gale Wings allowed it to rapidly outrun everything as long as it was in the air.

Y quickly reached out for her falling Fletchinder. Just before her fingertips brushed against her Pokémon’s feathers, the shiny Swellow entered her sight. The Brave Bird was about to hit, so Y had to abort reaching for her Pokémon and twisted her body to evade the attack. The attack narrowly missed her body, but the Swellow itself had punctured through the right wing of Y’s suit while its wing had left a wide gash in the body of the suit. Y wasn’t hurt yet as the suits inner protective layer had absorbed the damage, but she was going to start spiraling downwards due to the damage of the suit. The shiny Staraptor tried to hit her with its own Brave Bird. Again, Y twisted her body the opposite direction to narrowly dodge that attack as well. It was a good thing she was so slim, as the two birds’ Brave Bird attack would’ve sliced her in half otherwise. Like the Swellow, the Staraptor punctured through Y’s other wing and left a deep gash on her stomach area of the suit. Again, the girl wasn’t harmed due to her suit’s protective layer. But she couldn’t stay in the air anymore and began to plummet towards the ground.

Sapphire’s Tropius swooped down to try to save her. The Mega Hunter sent out another Pokémon. A shiny Crobat. The Crobat flew towards the Tropius and began to batter it with venom infused wings in a cross pattern for Cross Poison. The attack caused her Sylveon to fall off, much to Y’s horror.

She quickly tried to save her Pokémon. But before her hand reached it, she saw another Pokémon from below use an attack at her direction. It was a shiny Aegislash, using Flash Cannon.

Y forced her suit to cooperate for just a little by adjusting her body’s angle. She embraced her falling Sylveon and spun around, taking the Flash Cannon instead.

“Agh!” she screamed out. Her protective flight suit did absorb most of the attack, but she still felt massive pain in her back. Her flight suit was designed to save the Sky Trainer in the event of an accident, so it was enough to protect the wearer from a Pokémon attack as well, as long as the attack wasn’t way too powerful. But this Flash Cannon was quite powerful, and it punctured a giant hole in the suit.

The Sylveon looked at its trainer with worry. Y kept her teeth clenched, but still embraced her Sylveon as she plummeted towards the ground. She returned it to its Pokéball after making sure it was okay and immediately reached for her Froakie’s Pokéball. But her body suddenly froze in place before she could send out her Froakie.

She stopped plummeting towards the ground and instead, started to rise. She looked up and spotted a shiny Xatu using Psychic on her. Oh no… now she was completely immobile…

The Dex Holders’ aerial Pokémon tried to come to Y’s aid. The Mega Hunter’s Dragon Pokémon intercepted them as they flew back into the air. Y watched in horror as the Pokémon left in her care were individually taken down. Without coordination or any sort of formations, the Dragons overpowered them with ease.

Y tried to break free of the Psychic’s grip, but it was of no use. The shiny Mega Pidgeot used Hurricane on her now. The Hurricane was lifting up debris from the ground as well, as Y found herself surrounded by rocks and tree branches. The debris began to strike her from all over the place as the vortex became smaller.

A fist sized rock hit her on the back. She screamed in pain, but she couldn’t hear herself thanks to the Hurricane. She felt her vision blurring as the impact almost knocked her unconscious. She couldn’t even pull her arms and legs closer to minimize the damage. The Xatu’s Psychic left her limbs stretched out, maximizing the damage from the debris. Y gasped and groaned as the debris struck her harder and harder. Her helmet began to crack from the impacts and she found it harder and harder to stay conscious.

The Hurricane soon passed and the debris fell back down. Y struggled to keep her eyes open. Her blurring vision showed the Mega Pidgeot flying closer towards her. A huge beam of energy came out of the Pidgeot’s mouth. It was a Hyper Beam, and it was aimed directly at her. And she still couldn’t even move her arms or legs.

The beam struck. Immediately, she felt burning pain all over her body as the beam pushed her backwards. She clenched her teeth as she tried to withstand it. Her flight suit began to tear up and shred in various places as the protective layers disintegrated. She couldn’t help it. The beam became more and more painful as her protective suit got destroyed and exposed her to the attack. She started to groan as more and more sections of her suit got destroyed. Within seconds, her pained scream escaped her lips as the beam exploded and sent her body plummeting towards the ground.

The Mega Hunter watched the girl fall in the distance. Good. The Dex Holders’ air superiority was gone. Now they will fall much faster.


	11. Supreme

Chapter 11: Supreme

August 30, Pallet Town – Route 1, Kanto, 9 am…

Y kept falling. Her sky suit was on fire, steadily burning as she plummeted towards the ground. She couldn’t move her limbs and she was wavering in and out of consciousness as she saw the ground rapidly approaching.

Her Froakie popped out of its Pokéball and hopped onto its trainer’s back. Y was going to crash into the ground and she would get killed by the impact. It had to create thick layers of mousse to save her life, but it didn’t know where she was going to land. There were trees in the way as well, and Y would hit them as she fell. The Froakie began to create thick layers of mousse around the girl’s body.

Just as an inch of mousse formed over the girl’s body, she crashed into a tree, smashing through the thick branch. The Froakie quickly shot more and more mousse. Y kept crashing through the trees, and the Froakie began to struggle. It couldn’t create the mousse fast enough to save its trainer’s life…

Y screamed as another thick branch hit her, shattering her helmet. The Froakie pushed itself to its absolute maximum… and in a flash of light, evolved into Frogadier. The Frogadier took a split second to look at its evolved form and resumed shooting thick layers of mousse. With its evolution, it was able to shoot thicker and more durable layers of mousse, effectively encasing Y in a cocoon of protective layers.

Y’s body smashed through a thick tree and crashed into the ground. The thick layers absorbed all of the impact, saving the girl’s life. The girl grunted as she struggled to open her eyes.

‘ _I… survived?_ ’

Y focused on her sight and saw her Froakie standing in front of her, and it was no longer a Froakie.

“… You evolved…” she muttered in surprise. “… And saved me… … Thank you so much…”

The thick layers of mousse dissipated and Y was able to move her limbs, albeit very slowly. Y rolled onto her back. She struggled to sit up, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. She had to keep fighting… the enemy had complete air superiority. She had to get back and fight… but her body just wouldn’t listen.

With a grunt, Y fell back down and steadily lost consciousness. Her Frogadier surrounded her in another thick layer of mousse and stood on guard. It had to keep her safe until the other Dex Holders found her.

Meanwhile, X fought the enemy as hard as he could. He was _quite_ angry right now, as he saw Y getting hit by the Hyper Beam. She was his closest friend, and he could do nothing except watch as she plummeted towards the ground. If she got hurt, he would never forgive himself for not doing anything to help her. If she got killed… X shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that. Instead, he focused on his anger. His Pokémon were quite angry as well, and he used that to fight the enemy.

Unfortunately, a battle’s outcome wasn’t determined by anger alone. Despite being overwhelmed with rage, X’s Pokémon steadily fell one by one to the Mega Sceptile. The initial Thunderbolt from Manectric had given it too much of a boost thanks to Lightningrod.

The Mega Charizard’s Drought was still in effect in this part of the battlefield. The Mega Sceptile was taking advantage of it with rapid fire Solarbeam. The attacks were impossible to dodge due to the sheer size and speed of the beams, and they were impossible to withstand either due to the boosted power of the Mega Sceptile.

With the opposing air superiority fighters gone, the Mega Hunter’s aerial Pokémon began to attack the Dex Holders on the ground. With their speed and agility, the birds were able to hit the Dex Holders’ Pokémon from behind before they could react and succeed in dividing up their attention.

The Mega Hunter’s Fire Pokémon concentrated their attacks into one powerful blast of fire. Ruby saw the attack coming directly towards him and quickly shoved Sapphire out of the way as he dove out of the way as well. The other Dex Holders managed to split as well, narrowly avoiding the stream of fire. But the group was now divided into two. The Mega Hunter’s Dragons saw the opportunity and charged at one of the two groups while some of the other Pokémon attacked the other. The birds struck the stronger group and divided that group into two as well.

Gold ducked to narrowly avoid a Brave Bird from the shiny Swellow. The moment he looked up, the shiny Staraptor charged at him with Brave Bird as well, forcing him to block with his billiard cue. The attack still knocked him off his feet, leaving him vulnerable to the follow up Brave Bird from some of the other Flying type Pokémon of the enemy. His Typhlosion stepped in and forced a few back with Fire Blast, but that only left it and its trainer vulnerable to the Fire type attacks from the enemy.

The Mega Hunter’s Fire type Pokémon all used Heat Wave, with the exception of Typhlosion that kept using Eruption. The huge wave of intense heat got boosted by the intense sunlight and covered every Dex Holder’s Pokémon.

The Fire and Water type Pokémon of the Dex Holders did their best to shield their allies, as they had the best chance of withstanding the attack. Platinum’s Empoleon attempted a Water Sport to reduce the effectiveness of the Fire type attacks, but the little squirts of water rapidly evaporated thanks to the Heat Wave.

The moment the Heat Wave stopped, the Mega Hunter’s other Pokémon charged forward. The Dex Holders carefully fought back, ready to get back into cover should another Heat Wave burst come their way. But this meant that the Dex Holders couldn’t be aggressive with their attacks, thus allowing the enemy’s Pokémon to be much more aggressive.

Red glanced to the side and saw Sapphire pinned against the ground by the shiny Mega Salamence. The girl’s Aggron tried to smash it out of the way, but it was knocked backwards by a point-blank range Flamethrower from that Mega Salamence. Red got his Poliwrath to hit it with Hydro Pump, pushing it off the girl before it could hit her with its claws.

He then glanced at the other side and saw Gold being attacked by the Swellow, Staraptor, Crobat, and Talonflame. Red got his Pikachu to use Thunderbolt to force the Flying type Pokémon back.

Then he saw Black and White cornered by Tyranitar and Garchomp. The two Unova Dex Holders couldn’t even open their eyes, as the Tyranitar was directing its Sand Stream towards them. The Garchomp became quite invisible in the heavy sandstorm, and as a result, the two Unova Dex Holders’ Pokémon were unable to even hit it.

Something popped out of the ground from directly behind Black. White saw that it was a Sandslash. She quickly got her Serperior to hit it with Leaf Storm, but the Sandslash had vanished in the sandstorm. Black suddenly let out a yell as his feet sank into the ground. White quickly grabbed his hands and tried her best to pull him out of the ground. The Sandslash popped out of the ground again and this time, swung its claws at her for a Crush Claw.

Red’s Venusaur managed to knock it back with a Vine Whip just before the claws hit the girl in the chest. Red let out a short sigh of relief and looked back only to see Platinum being attacked by Absol, Weavile, and Hydreigon. The Espeon he had lent to the heiress wasn’t able to do anything, and the girl’s Pokémon were still weakened from their first encounter with the Garchomp.

To make things worse, Red didn’t have any Pokémon to spare at this time. His Aerodactyl and Gyarados were defeated by the Mega Hunter’s Flying Pokémon. His Pikachu was assisting Gold, Poliwrath was assisting Sapphire, and Venusaur was helping Black and White. And with Espeon staying with Platinum for now, Red didn’t have any Pokémon.

The shiny Weavile charged forth with Ice Punch. The shiny Absol did the same with Night Slash, while the shiny Hydreigon kept the other Pokémon at bay with Dark Pulse. Platinum’s Empoleon and Rapidash tried to counter the attacks, but were downed rather quickly. The Lopunny tried to defend with Focus Blast, but the attack missed and it too, was downed by the Weavile. The Weavile and Absol changed their target to Platinum and charged at her.

Red quickly grabbed Platinum by her wrist and pulled her out of harm’s way. While practically holding her in an embrace, Red dodged the incoming attacks and retreated back towards the other Dex Holders. The Weavile and Absol soon lost interest and began to attack someone else.

“What do you think?” Red asked abruptly. Platinum looked up at him, wondering what he was talking about. “What should we do? How do we beat the enemy?”

Platinum looked around the battlefield. Most of the Dex Holders were scattered and separated. In fact, the only ones she could see were Gold, Sapphire, Black, and White. Everyone else was blocked from sight by fighting Pokémon, fire, and smoke. The enemy’s Flying Pokémon had split the Dex Holders into smaller groups for isolated destruction.

“I – I do not think we can win,” she mumbled eventually. “We have to pull back.”

Red slowly nodded. He returned whatever Pokémon he could return and the heiress did the same. While still holding Platinum, he ran towards the other visible Dex Holders so that he could tell them to retreat as well. He got to Black and White first, who were still struggling against the Tyranitar and Garchomp. Red got his Venusaur to use Frenzy Plant in an effort to get the shiny Pokémon to back off. The attack missed the enemy Pokémon, but they did back off, allowing Red and Platinum to reach Black and White.

“We’re pulling back,” Red said to the two Unova Dex Holders. “We can’t fight like this anymore. We have to retreat.”

Black clenched his teeth, but nodded. White looked quite tired and a little frightened, even. She nodded as well and returned her Pokémon. Black reluctantly returned his Pokémon and grabbed White by her wrist and followed Red around the battlefield.

The four Dex Holders got to Gold first. By this time, the Mega Hunter’s shiny Pokémon had moved on to attack someone else, leaving the goggled boy alone. Gold saw the others and quickly approached them.

“Any ideas?” he asked. “We’re getting our asses handed to us.”

“We’re retreating,” Red said.

“What? That’s crap!” Gold yelled. “We can’t just leave!”

“I know how you feel, but we have no choice,” Red said with a sigh. “As Green would say, you have to know your limits. We can stay and fight as much as we’re able to. But then what? We’ll just end up like Y. That won’t accomplish anything. We have to pull back.”

“Shit…” Gold muttered angrily. “… What about the others? We can’t just leave them.”

“We’ll tell them to retreat too. Now come, we have to save Sapphire and then find Y.”

Gold returned his Pokémon except Typhlosion and had it use Blast Burn against the Mega Salamence. The Mega Salamence countered with Hydro Pump, pushing the Blast Burn back. Gold’s Typhlosion tried its absolute best to push the blast forward. Now that the Mega Salamence was distracted, Red was able to pull Sapphire away from her worst nightmare. Seeing the girl still stunned, Red gave the order to her Blaziken to use Blast Burn at the Mega Salamence. He returned all of the girl’s other Pokémon, and began to lead the group away from the battlefield. Gold saw Red and the others leave and after attacking the Mega Salamence one last time, quickly returned his Typhlosion and ran after his senior.

Red was about to call Green to let him know about retreating when Green called him first.

“Red, this battle’s lost. Fall back!” came the Gym Leader’s voice. He too, sounded quite upset.

“We’re going up to Route 1,” Red said. “We’re going to find Y before it’s too late.”

“Understood. We’re pulling back to Pallet Town. We’ll keep the enemy off of you.”

Red hung up and kept running. Once he was sufficiently far away, he glanced back at the battlefield. The enemy’s shiny Pokémon were still attacking, and they were the ones mostly attacking. The other Dex Holders’ Pokémon were struggling to defend. There was a huge explosion as the remaining Pokémon combined the ultimate attacks. The large blast seemed to disorient a lot of the shiny Pokémon, but not by enough.

Red sighed as he watched the battle. The enemy was so strong. How was this even possible? Who was this guy? A trainer this strong would’ve been spotted somewhere at some point, whether in an official Pokémon league, or something else.

“Um… senior?”

And why attack the Dex Holders? What could this guy possibly gain from this?

“Senior?”

Red snapped out of his thoughts and looked down. He could see Platinum looking up at him, waiting patiently.

“Hm?”

“Thank you for saving me, but could you please release me?” the girl asked after a polite bow.

Red looked down at his hands and noticed that he was still holding onto his junior. And he was clenching his hands rather angrily at the thought of having to retreat from a battle… He quickly released her and Platinum gently rubbed her wrist.

“Sorry.” He cast a quick glance at her from head to toe. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

Platinum smiled and shook her head. “Thank you for your concern. I am unscathed.”

“Damn it,” came Sapphire’s voice from behind. The other Dex Holders looked back and saw the Hoenn Dex Holder pressing her hands against her temples. “Damn it…”

“What’s wrong?” Red asked.

Sapphire looked at him with a tear falling from her eyes. “… I just… can’t do anything against Salamence! … It’s driving me crazy… I’m letting everyone down…”

“It’s all right,” Red said warmly. “We’ll help you overcome your fears. Blue used to be terrified of bird Pokémon, you know. But she got over it eventually.”

Sapphire lowered her head and wiped away the falling tear. “And Ruby… he’s in danger right now. And I can’t save him… He keeps putting himself in harm’s way because I can’t handle Salamence…”

Red walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I know how you feel. But you can’t berate yourself like this. Look, we’ll retreat to safety and then we’ll start helping you overcome your fears. When that time comes, think about how you’re feeling right now. And use this feeling to overcome your fears as fast as you can. Until then, focus on the task at hand.”

Sapphire slowly nodded and took a shuddering sigh to calm herself down. “… Okay… Thank you.”

“What do we do now?” Gold asked.

“First, we find Y. Then we’ll head to Viridian City so that we can use their Pokémon Center to get back to fighting shape,” Red said. “Once we’re ready, we’ll head back to Pallet Town to help Green and the others. So let’s get to it, people.”

Sapphire began to sniff at the air. Y had a unique scent to her, as with all the other female Dex Holders. Something called perfume. Crystal didn’t really use a whole lot, so her perfume scent was always a little faint. Platinum wore a lot more and the scent was different. The heiress wore a mix of strawberries and apple scented perfume, which stood out against the everyday odors of a city or a forest. White had her own perfume as well, which was different than what Crystal or Platinum wore. And Y also had her own unique perfume. It made sense, as the girls all came from different regions.

Sapphire soon caught the whiff of the ‘Kalos perfume’ in the air. “I think I can smell her.”

“Good girl. Now go find her,” Gold said.

Sapphire growled at him a little. “What am I, a pet?”

“Relax. You know I’m joking,” Gold said defensively.

Platinum frowned as she watched the interaction. Sapphire was sniffing at the air like… an animal. She heard that the Hoenn Dex Holder had superior senses, but… did she have to be this blatantly obvious? People watching from far away would just think she had lost her mind or something. This was embarrassing. Platinum unconsciously took a couple of steps backwards, intending to be as far away from Sapphire as possible.

Sapphire didn’t notice yet, as she was busy tracing the ‘Kalos perfume’. She soon began to walk into the forest, and the other Dex Holders followed. White was about to follow Black into the forest when she noticed Platinum standing behind.

“Is something wrong, Lady Platinum?”

Platinum snapped out of her thoughts. “Oh. No. Nothing is wrong.” She cast a glance at the battle still going on in Pallet Town – Route 1 area and with a sigh, entered the forest.

The Dex Holders kept low as they followed Sapphire. It was possible that the Mega Hunter’s _scouts_ were still around the area. Just in case, the Dex Holders had to stay out of sight.

Several minutes later, Sapphire spotted a large tree that had its largest branch snapped as if something smashed through it. She looked up and spotted more trees with their branches snapped.

“The broken branches form a pattern,” Platinum said as she observed the branches.

“Like what?” Gold asked.

“The broken branches,” the heiress said as she pointed up. “The broken branches trace the motion of a projectile in motion. Following the pattern would show us where Y landed. She would not have-”

“You can just follow me,” Sapphire said from ahead, still sniffing at the air.

Platinum narrowed her eyes at being interrupted. She decided to let it slide. This wasn’t the time to argue.

“I found her!” Sapphire suddenly said, trying to keep her voice down so that she wouldn’t be heard by the enemy who may or may not be nearby.

Red and Gold came to her side first while Platinum and Black followed a little while later. The heiress went up towards her seniors and soon spotted Y. The Kalos girl was lying face up on the ground, being defended solely by her Froakie… Frogadier now, apparently. It seemed that the Frogadier had created a protective layer of foam to save its trainer’s life, but the girl was unconscious. Her helmet was destroyed and she was bleeding a little from the side of her head. Her flight suit was badly damaged, with the exterior layer almost completely burnt up. Some of the interior layers remained intact, but the suit was burned quite badly in quite a few areas, burning up all the way to the girl’s bare skin. The other parts of the suit were crimson as her blood had permeated the inner layers.

Red gently put his fingers on Y’s neck to feel her pulse. He slowly nodded after a short while, indicating that she was still alive. Sapphire returned Y’s Frogadier for her while Red carefully lifted the injured girl onto his arms.

As he did so, he felt something vibrating in his pocket. He carefully held Y above the ground with one arm and reached into his pocket with his other hand. He took out his Pokégear and gave it to Platinum. The heiress answered while Red properly lifted Y into his arms.

“Hello?” Platinum answered.

“Is this Platinum?” came Green’s voice from the other side.

“Yes, senior. How can I help?”

“Tell Red that Pallet Town is lost.”

“Senior Red… Pallet Town is lost,” the heiress said with an alarmed look on her face.

“What?” Red muttered in shock.

Platinum held up the Pokégear next to her senior’s ear and mouth so that he could answer the call.

“Green, what happened?”

“The enemy knows where we were going to take shelter,” Green said. “He burned down the lab and our houses. I don’t know how, but he hit the lab before we even got anywhere near.”

“Damn it. So what now?”

“We’re falling back to Johto. But for now, we have to stay low and avoid being spotted.”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Everyone is accounted for except Gold, Sapphire, Platinum, Black, White, and Y.”

“They’re all with me,” Red said. “We found Y, and she’s alive. She’s unconscious, so we’re taking her to the hospital.”

“Good. Once you’re able, get over to Violet City. We’ll decide what to do there.”

“All right.”

Red signaled Platinum to hang up. The heiress hung up and temporarily put the Pokégear in her bag, as putting it back into her senior’s pocket was quite weird.

“Okay people, listen up,” Red said to the Dex Holders around him. “Pallet Town is gone. Green and the others are going to Johto to regroup. We’re going to Viridian City. After we heal up and rest, we’re going to Violet City to meet up with everyone else. So let’s get going. Gold, Sapphire, you’re in the front. Make sure to avoid running into the enemy. Black, White, you’re in the back. Make sure nothing follows us. Platinum, you stay close to me. Now let’s get moving!”

…

Meanwhile…

…

Peter looked around the scorched buildings of Pallet Town. On hindsight, burning the Dex Holders’ _hideouts_ prematurely was a mistake. The thick smoke created followed by a combination of the ultimate attacks created enough of a distraction for the Dex Holders to escape.

Now things would be problematic. The Dex Holders would adapt to the tactics used. They will find a way to counter the air superiority. They saw that the Flying type Pokémon were used to divide the Dex Holders into smaller groups. They would learn to counter it. They would train and prepare a group of Flying type Pokémon to directly challenge the air superiority and prevent the ground Pokémon from becoming split apart. The Dex Holders would train and learn to deal with the Dragon type’s aggression. And the Fire type’s ranged support. They will adapt quickly.

But it also applied the other way. There was a Dex Holder in Kalos right now who was not with the others. As always, Blue was the key. And it was time to use her.

Scouts would be scattered all over Kanto and Johto to keep track of the Dex Holders. Blue would be convinced to fight her former friends. The Dex Holders’ friends would provide information about them, starting right now.

Peter walked over towards the remnants of Prof. Oak’s laboratory. His shiny Dragonite was holding someone down: Prof. Oak himself. And next to him, the shiny Haxorus was holding someone else. A young lady, but identity unknown. She wasn’t one of the Dex Holders. Who could this be?

“Who are you and what do you want with us?” the elderly professor asked.

Peter didn’t answer his question. “You will tell me everything you know about the Dex Holders. And you will tell me whether you want to or not.”

He took out an Ultra Ball from his bag and held it with both hands. He moved the ball closer towards the elderly professor. The Ultra Ball began to glow while the Pokémon inside did its work. The professor’s eyes began to go blank as he watched the slug-like Pokémon inside. Its tentacles were moving in a hypnotic pattern, with its numerous eyes all glowing…

“Grandfather!” the young lady beside him cried out. “What’s happening?”

“… Assimilation… successful…” the professor muttered in monotone.

Peter turned his attention to the young lady, now identified as Daisy, Green’s older sister. But he stopped halfway as there was some troubling information.

These Dex Holders. Every single one of them had some extraordinary encounters with Legendary Pokémon. Some from mere encounters to cooperation, friendship, and even… temporary captures. Ruby and Sapphire were quite notable. … This was ill news indeed. And it must be countered. Again, Blue was key. She had captured three Legendary Pokémon at one point. Perhaps she could do so again.

Peter looked over at Daisy. “What do you know that he does not?”

“What did you do to him?” she demanded angrily.

“I did not hurt him,” he answered honestly. “Now…”

He approached her while holding the Ultra Ball in his hands. This process took a significant amount of energy, and as such, should only be done once per day. But this was extraordinary. Daisy closed her eyes so that she wouldn’t be able to see the Pokémon inside the Ultra Ball.

“Vision is irrelevant,” Peter said.

Daisy began to struggle, but not for long. She soon went limp and she opened her eyes, which were now blank. “… Assimilation successful…”

… Daisy was not offering any new information. But at least she would provide a new leverage against Green and the other Dex Holders, if Blue was not enough.

The Kanto and Johto Dex Holders’ homes were now known. Red and Green’s homes were already burnt down. Blue lived in One Island, but based on her words in Kalos, she was trying to find a new place. Yellow lived in Viridian Forest. Gold in New Bark Town. Silver didn’t have a home, but was the son of Giovanni, the Team Rocket leader. Crystal in Violet City.

With Pallet Town gone, the Dex Holders would likely fall back to Johto. And this was problematic. Fighting in Dex Holders’ turf would not go well. The Dex Holders started in Kanto. Kanto and Johto were connected, and people of the regions quite liked the Dex Holders for their services. They had to be lured into an isolated region. Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, or Kalos. Kalos was preferable. Again, Blue may be the key.

Peter put the Ultra Ball away and returned all of his Pokémon except the Mega Salamence. He gave the orders to Prof. Oak and Daisy and hopped onto the Mega Salamence. The Dragon Pokémon roared and flew towards Kalos and more specifically, towards Blue.

The scouts now had a new set of orders. They were to be scattered across Kanto and Johto and attack any Dex Holder they could find. They were not scouting anymore. They were going to search and attack, with the main objective of capturing as many Dex Holders as possible.


	12. Enemy Within

Chapter 12: Enemy Within

August 30, Route 1, Kanto, 12 pm…

“All clear,” Sapphire said as she scanned the skies above and the ground below.

Red waited until Sapphire hopped down from the trees before moving. Gold went on ahead with Sapphire following. The two Dex Holders stopped every now and then to make sure the coast was clear. Red followed them only when they were moving, and he made sure to be extra careful, as he was still carrying Y in his arms.

“There’s Viridian City,” he said as he looked ahead.

“Where is the hospital?” Platinum asked.

“It shouldn’t be too far away from the Gym,” Red answered. “All right, everything’s clear. It should be safe for us to start running.” He took a glance at Platinum. “Think you can keep up?”

“Of course, senior,” the heiress said, wondering why he would ask her such a question. What, did he think that she was incapable of running?

Red slowly began to run. The other Dex Holders followed, quickly scanning around them to make sure they weren’t being followed. While running, Red glanced down. He could feel something sticky on his hands, and realized that some of Y’s blood was trickling onto his hands. It didn’t look severe yet, but it was worrying nonetheless.

He stared at the girl in his arms for a while, trying to determine the severity of her injuries. He could see her bare skin wherever her suit got completely destroyed, but those visible wounds didn’t seem too severe. Then again, since when was he an expert? Y could be dying from some internal injury for all he’d know, and she’d look perfectly fine to him.

Y suddenly began to squirm. Red stopped running and adjusted his arms’ positions, in case he was inadvertently causing discomfort to the girl.

“Ungh…”

“Hey, you okay?” Red asked. Hearing his voice, the other Dex Holders gathered near him.

Y groaned as she struggled to open her eyes. She soon managed to open them just a little, enough to see her senior’s face. She realized what was happening and her eyes shot wide open. Her senior was carrying her in his arms, and it was a little embarrassing for her. She didn’t want to look weak and helpless in front of everyone. She _hated_ looking weak. And she didn’t like the fact that she _was_ weak when compared to all of her seniors. This current position was making things a lot worse. She tried to get off of her senior’s arms as quickly as possible. But her body wouldn’t cooperate.

“Do not move,” Platinum said from the side. “Do not risk worsening your injuries.”

“Yeah, take it easy,” White said as well. “We’re almost at the hospital. Until then, you have to relax and rest up.”

Y heeded her seniors’ warnings and slowly calmed down. “… Sorry,” she mumbled out. “I… I wasn’t strong enough…”

“It’s okay,” Red said warmly. “The enemy was far too strong for any of us. But we’ll find a way to beat him. We always do. One of the first things we have to do is alert everyone. Tell the Gym Leaders and the public about the new threat. So don’t worry about it too much. We’ll get him.”

He felt Y loosening up in his arms. Again, he repositioned his arms to make it more comfortable for her.

“Thank you…” Y said quietly.

Red resumed running, but slowly and carefully. Y tried to stay focused on where she was going, but felt her eyes closing on their own. Was it because of her injuries? Was it because she didn’t get much sleep the past few days because of her rigorous training? … Or was it because she was so comfortable in her senior’s arms? … Probably the last one. Could X carry her like this? This felt so comfortable… Red’s pace added a little… rocking, sort of, and the rhythmic pace was enough to lull her into sleep.

Red and his team eventually reached Viridian City’s hospital without incident. While Platinum and White stayed in the hospital to watch over Y, Red and the others went towards the Pokémon Center to heal everyone’s Pokémon.

While Y was being treated, Platinum and White got their minor injuries checked over as well. They weren’t exactly injured, but they did have a few bruises, cuts, and a couple of minor burns and they had nothing else to do at the moment.

White rubbed her arm and glanced over at Platinum. The heiress kept her head down and she looked quite upset.

“Lady Platinum, is something wrong?” White asked. “… Other than that Mega Hunter guy who just beat us all.”

Platinum let out a long sigh. “Only a fool loses to the same enemy twice,” she said slowly. “But we have lost to the same enemy multiple times. This cannot continue.”

“This was the first time everyone took on that Mega Hunter at the same time,” White said. “We all saw the strategies he used. I’m sure we can come up with a way to beat him.” She gave her senior a comforting smile. “And I’m sure _you_ can come up with that strategy faster than anyone.”

“I appreciate your confidence in me,” Platinum said. “But I have lost to the Mega Hunter three times now. I am not in any position to discuss strategies.”

“Don’t discourage yourself like that,” White said. “This sort of thing happened to you before, didn’t it? Who was it you said? Galactic Commander Jupiter? You had to lose to her first before you figured out a strategy to beat her.”

Platinum blinked a few times as she focused on her memories. “But back then, I was not the one battling her. I was observing the battle more than participating. And I was not the one to defeat her later on.”

“But you still helped out a lot. Please don’t lose confidence in yourself. For the sake of your juniors.”

Platinum looked rather surprised as she looked up at her junior. “… Yes… You are correct. I have juniors now…” She let out another sigh and forced herself to calm down. “I will need time to think and analyze the enemy’s strategies.”

“Of course. But speaking of which, let’s go and check up on our junior.”

The two girls followed the directions of the nurse to reach Y’s room. The Kalos Dex Holder was awake, and was trying to look out through the windows. She had bandages wrapped around her head and she had a few band-aids on her face too. Though only her arms were visible thanks to the blanket, it was safe to assume that she was nearly covered in bandages, as her bare arms were almost covered completely. Upon seeing her seniors, Y tried to sit up to greet them.

“Hey, take it easy,” White said.

“How are you doing?” Platinum asked.

“I’m doing okay,” Y answered. “All things considering, at least. The doctor said that I’d be okay as long as I stay here. But I won’t. I’m not going to stay bedridden while everyone else is fighting the Mega Hunter.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” White asked as she worriedly looked at the bandages on her junior’s arms.

Y glanced down at her arms too. “Yeah, I’m okay. These aren’t major injuries. My flight suit absorbed quite a lot of damage. Most of these bandages are just for the burns.” She winced as she put a hand on her side. “Except… for a few places.”

Platinum pulled a chair next to the bed and sat on it. White sat on the edge of the bed as the heiress took out a notepad.

“Y, you want to contribute, but you are physically incapable of assisting us in a battle,” Platinum started. Y let out a sigh and lowered her head in shame. “But you can still assist us greatly.”

Y perked up. “How?”

“We have lost to the same enemy repeatedly,” Platinum said. “We have seen his strategies. It is time we analyze his strategies and find ways to beat him. You have faced him in Kalos. Tell me everything that happened and I will record it. I will also record the battle that happened in Sinnoh, and here in Kanto. After we record everything that happened, we will be able to analyze the information properly. I will also ask senior Ruby in order to record the battle that occurred in Hoenn.”

Y slowly nodded. “Okay…”

“So let’s get started,” White said. “The faster we do this, the faster we can come up with a plan.”

…

Next day, August 31, Couriway Town, Kalos, 11 am…

…

Blue sat down by her table with a cup of iced tea in her hands. She spread out the map of Kalos on the table and focused on her current location. She was currently in a café of Couriway Town, and… for some reason, she felt odd. Really, really odd. The scenery was beyond amazing. And she definitely would’ve chosen this place to be her future home, but… something just felt strange. Unnatural, maybe.

But she didn’t know why. The town looked unbelievably beautiful, everyone in the town was very kind, but something just felt off.

Blue trusted her own instincts. Something was wrong about this place. But she didn’t care. Whatever was wrong, it wasn’t her problem. She’d finish her tour of the place, and head south towards Snowbelle City. Given the name of the city, she’d probably need winter clothes to tour that place. It was a good thing she bought a set when she visited Dendemille Town.

Her Pokégear suddenly vibrated as she received a message. She hesitated in reaching for her Pokégear, in case it was Red or Silver. But when she finally checked, she realized that it was from Peter.

_“Blue, I’m in Couriway Town right now, and I need your help with something. Can I talk to you in person?”_

Blue didn’t find any reason to refuse the request, so she replied to him with her current location. And until he came, she’d just sit there and stare at the map some more.

Peter arrived at the café within an hour. He found Blue pretty quickly and headed over towards her.

“Blue, I could use your help,” he said as he sat across the table from her.

Blue looked up from her map. “With what?”

“The other Dex Holders,” Peter answered.

The girl almost jumped in surprise. “What?” She suddenly narrowed her eyes as several thoughts came to her mind. “How do you know them? And _other_ Dex Holders? How do you know that I used to be one?”

Peter took out an Ultra Ball from his pocket and kept it hidden from Blue’s sights by keeping it under the table. The Ultra Ball began to glow as the Pokémon inside did its work once again.

“I always knew you were a Dex Holder,” he said calmly. “And I had run-ins with your _friends_.”

“What run-ins? What did you do?”

Peter ignored her questions this time and proceeded to tear her heart out. “Of course, _you_ may view them as friends still. But do they view you the same? You once said that you had no idea what Mega Evolution was. Are you aware that the other Dex Holders are aware of them? And that some of them use Mega Evolution regularly? Such as Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald?” He stared into her eyes to see the effect of his words. “You’ve been left out of the loop.”

Blue began to tremble. “Wh – What?” She looked down as her vision started to turn blurry around the edges. So it was true then. They were aware and they didn’t tell her. If Emerald could use it, then Crystal would know about it for sure. If Crystal knew it, then Green would know it. And so would Red. And no one told her… Mega Evolution granted the user much greater strength, but the Dex Holders kept that knowledge from her. “… They view me as an enemy…” she muttered. “Why else would they keep this information from me? Mega Evolution grants the user strength and if they didn’t want me to use it, then they didn’t want me becoming stronger…”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Peter said again. Blue looked at him, her eyes shaking a little. “If Crystal is aware of Mega Evolution, then Gold would know as well, yes? If Gold and Crystal know, then Silver would know for sure. Now, it’s my understanding that you and Silver are quite close, to the point where you view him as a younger brother. But he didn’t tell you about Mega Evolution either.”

Blue gasped as she felt a severe blow to her heart. “… Silver… too?” She lowered her head and put a hand over her heart. “… My closest friends… … All of them…” Her eyes rapidly lost color and turned blank. “I will have my revenge.”

She suddenly blinked. Her eye color reverted to normal as she fought to shake off the effects of the concealed Pokémon. She shook her head and blinked a few more times.

“Blue?” Peter started as he frowned.

“What? … What did I…” Blue stammered as she looked at various objects around her.

The Ultra Ball glowed again.

“The Dex Holders are the cause of imbalance,” Peter said slowly. “Collectively, they have too much power. Joined together, they’re near unstoppable. No force can stop them if they turn. Various groups rose in the past to try to dominate their respective regions and they were all stopped by a handful of Dex Holders. Imagine what could happen if all the Dex Holders joined together and _turned_. I am stopping them before things get out of hand. The first order is to relieve them of their Mega Rings.”

Blue’s eyes snapped back to normal. “You’re the one. You’re the Mega Hunter I heard about on the news,” she said as she glared at him. “You even attacked the Dex Holders. My… _friends_ …”

“But not you,” Peter said. “Have I done anything to you? Have I harmed you in any way? Have I ignored you or abandoned you?”

Blue looked down again. “… No… You… you’ve been nicer to me than the others…”

“They even have the public on their side, along with various Gym Leaders and Elite Four, but… not you,” Peter said with a smirk. “Do they care more about random people of Kanto or Johto than you? That’s just wrong. But it’s true, isn’t it? They don’t want anyone else surpassing their strength. You said it yourself. They don’t want you growing stronger because they don’t view you as an ally. The same goes for me. They faced someone stronger than them and now they view me as an enemy who is out for world domination. All I’ve done was attack them and their allies. Yet they convinced the public that I’m the evil that will destroy everything. How long until the public is convinced that _you_ are also a threat? You’ve already been chased by the public before, no? Out of a hospital after you fell into a coma because your long lost parents were kidnapped right in front of you. And before that, people chased after you because of what you had to do to survive after the kidnapping.”

Blue groaned as the bad memories returned. She put her hands up to her temples and shook her head. The Ultra Ball glowed again and the girl’s eyes changed color. This time, her eyes began to turn red as she became “convinced”.

“… No more…” she mumbled quietly as her eyes fully changed color. “I will not be betrayed by them. Not again…”

“So, what will you do? Will you still blindly trust in the other Dex Holders, knowing full well that they don’t respect you, or care for you?”

Blue shook her head, her eyes a shade of bright red. “No. I will fight them. I will fight until no Dex Holder remains standing. For years, they hated me for no reason… For years they hurt my feelings when I only tried to be close to them. For years I tried to get them to like me. No more. They pushed me and I will now push back. They hate me and I will hate them back. I will fight them with everything I have.”

“Excellent. Follow me to Kanto. You will help me find the Dex Holders who have gone into hiding. And you will get the opportunity to have your revenge against them.”

Blue was about to rise to her feet when she heard a voice echo in her mind. ‘ _Don’t abandon your friends._ ’ That was Pryce’s advice to her when she confronted him a long while ago. She shook her head. This was different. Her friends had abandoned her first. They hurt her repeatedly and she didn’t want to be with them anymore. This wasn’t her fault. Another voice echoed in her mind. This time, it was her own voice. ‘ _No! There must be something going on here! They couldn’t have abandoned me… they just couldn’t have. Not all of them at once… What did I ever do to them to deserve this?_ ’

She felt a severe headache and put a hand on her forehead. Her vision was quite blurred and wouldn’t clear. Her eye color flickered between red and blue as she struggled. “… It’s not fair,” she said almost in a whimper. “Why? Why do they hate me so much?”

The Ultra Ball emitted a low vibrating noise as the Pokémon inside exerted more of its energy. Blue began to groan as she clenched her eyes shut and frantically shook her head.

“They are fools. But you will be a bigger fool if you don’t do anything about it. So, will you come with me to Kanto?”

Blue steadily calmed down. “… Yes…” She wiped at her eyes and set her hands back down. Her eyes were back to being a shade of bright red as the “convincing” process was complete. “I will go with you. I will fight them. And if they push me further… I will _kill_ them.”

“Good.”


End file.
